You and Me
by Il Guerriero Diavolo
Summary: Maybe it was the way she walked or talked, but somehow I had fallen everyway possible for the girl I had heartlessly broken with my words and actions. Now, she lies within the arms of Seth and there's no way to reclaim the girl that is rightfully mine.
1. Chapter 1: Nothing to Loose

**You and Me**

_Inspired by the life and times of a great person and an even greater story._

**Prologue:**

"_It's you and me, and all other people… and I don't know why, I can't keep my eyes off of you."_

Elizabeth Nicole Tombs has always been different. Orphaned when she was seven, _Nicky_ is sent to a far away place to people she doesn't even know. Everyone seems so different, everything so knew to her. She has a different attitude, a different personality, a different ability, and a different skin colour.

This is pulling her into a world where she knows she'll never fit in. An ideal girl or friend for any reserve person, but why can't these kids see that? She'll never know.

Nicky has lost all hope _and_ her direction on life. Can one pack boy put everything back together for her?

But what will happen when the two are pulled apart, not only by their friends, but by their difference in their look on life and abilities?

'_At first, it seemed as if it were just you and me, side by side made perfectly for each other. I was meant for you, and you for me. But as I think about more and see what's truly tearing us apart, the truth becomes clearer. I'm no good for you. You need someone good, and you and I both know I can't be that person.'_

It's a story of trial and error, love and friendship, sacrifice and redemption. Love and friendship is put to the test and in this story, we'll see if there really is such a thing as a happily ever after for people to look up too. What do you think? Can one wolf save the life of an imprint he never wanted anything to do with? Or will he leave the fate of his girl up to her own stupid decisions?

**Chapter One: **_Nothing to Loose_

**Nicole's POV.**

As I clutched the single white rose to my chest, I felt the tears stain my face. Closing my eyes, I knelt beside my mother and father's graves and leant my head against their Head Stones. Sobbing, I hugged the flower closer to me, holding onto the last tie I had to my parents. A single white rose, my father use to say, can change the world if you want it too.

Lifting the rose to my face, I inhaled the scent of the flower and sighed out an overwhelming grief. The memories that flashed before my eyes knotted my stomach and tugged at my heart, pins and needles ran up the back of my neck and a lump in my throat threatened to choke me to death. The air was heavy and moist with rain. Apart from the steady hum of the wind behind me, the only noise came from a fluctuated bird. Everything else was silent, and other then the quiet souls of my dead parents, I was all alone.

"I'm so sorry mom, dad. I wish I could be better for you." I whispered underneath my breath, my words and throat catching, tears running from my sore, swollen eyes. "I'm trying, I really am. But I can't figure out what's wrong with me anymore." clenching my eyes shut with more force then necessary, I prayed for some being, something, to come take me from this miserable life. Put me out of my misery.

But there was no hope. I had been living in La Push for nine years, and by now, I've had enough time to realize something. I will never fit in. It wouldn't matter if I acted different, or dressed different. It wouldn't matter if I wasn't rich, it wouldn't matter even if I had the same colour skin tone as these people. They would never accept me. I was too different.

Jason and Stephanie Tombs had taken care of me since I had lost my parents. They were pleasant and nice. But they were blind. I needed a family, parents. And these people could only be my friends. I needed to fit in, to be somebody, but I couldn't. I can try and try, but no matter how high I climb… I will always be pushed back down again, and I don't know how much longer I can stand being thrown down the same way.

I know I have to be thankful for my life, my families' money and their caring ways. But I would give it all up if it meant I could have my parents back again. I'm sick of being empty, of not knowing what it's like to be loved, to have friends, or boyfriends. I knew I was beautiful, and I could be a great friend if people would give me a chance. I could do things that no other person could, but I was never given a chance to share that with anybody. I had dug a hole, and somehow found my way into burying myself in it.

My looks had ceased to matter and my extra ability ignored, pleasant memories were all but forgotten, and memories filled with pain and suffering moved in to replace them. I had fallen so far and so fast from where I was, I didn't know _who_ I was anymore. My life was one big black hole and through the time I had been here, I knew there was no escaping the truth of what I had turned into.

They had turned me into this, the family and friends I thought I had, the family and friend's I should have had. They left me, and now I sit here, on my parent's grave wondering what my life would have been like if I would have been able to fit in. But now I've turned from the innocent child I was, to this… this monster I have become. I've lost myself. Because when they left, they took my life with them, leaving me shallow and empty. Like a breakable glass with no contents.

I hate my life, and I hate the people that did this to me. I hate my parents for leaving my like this. I hate the locals for rejecting me and my friends for abandoning me because I left them. I hate the people that walk around everyday happy because they have everything I could only ever wish for and they look past it for bigger and better things. I hate everyone, because they have everything that I've always wanted, and there's nothing I can do about it.

But most of all, I hate myself. I hate myself for being too stupid and naïve as to think someone would ever care about me. I hate the monster I have become, and the demon that lurks inside me. I hate the emptiness I feel every second that passes. I hate the ways I can set myself up for happiness only to be torn back down again by someone that can't stand to see me happy. But out of everything, I hate that there is still a small part of me that believes that maybe someone, somewhere has feelings for me, true, real, pure feelings. And the more I try to ignore it, the more it makes itself known.

Suddenly, the rain started to spit on me, as if it had planned to take me down with it as it fell. Kissing the rose, I laid it across the two headstones and raised to my feet. Looking down, I stared at the two names and sighed. "Bye mom, bye dad." I whispered before walking over to my new truck.

Stepping in from the rain, the smell of new leather and plastic overwhelmed me. It was a brand new duel pick up truck I had gotten for a birthday gift. My driver's licence as well as my driving experience was new. I wasn't exactly use to the idea of being behind the wheel. Why Steph and Jason would have bought me something so big I will never understand, I wasn't going anywhere with anyone soon. In a way I suppose it replaced a false hope in their minds that maybe someday their adopted daughter would make some friends and drive away with them, acting like a normal teenager.

Driving through town, I watched all the couples and friends walk side by side laughing and talking down the sidewalk. The roads were long, wet and muddy and the hum of the engine was the only sound I heard other then the occasional stone hitting the bottom of the vehicle. Sighing, I leant forwards and pushed the on button for the radio and flipping through the stations, I eventually gave up as I pulled into the driveway of my beach side home.

Walking towards the door, I unlocked the portal and sauntered inside my empty house. Jason had taken Stephanie for an all included vacation for a month so I had the house to myself. My footsteps seemed to echo throughout the hollow house as I walked in. This place would have most likely cost more then the beach itself but I couldn't complain, there was always lots of room to get away from everyone.

Running through the house to my bedroom, I quickly changed and through a pair of shorts, a sweatshirt, a pair of runners and a baseball cap over my black hair. Marching out the back of the patio doors, I let the wave of fresh sea air pull me towards the water. My music playing was on shuffle and as I began to warm up and stretch I smiled at the freedom of the ocean. Dangerous and free, something I've always wanted to be.

As I ran, the wind blew me from all sides and I couldn't help the shrill laugh that escaped my mouth as my feet sunk into the wet sand beneath my shoes. Running was my escape, when I ran, I felt as if I was running from all my troubles and they would never catch me ever again. It was something I enjoyed. Pushing myself to my limits, and then mentally rejoicing for my achievements.

I had run all along First Beach and I could see the cliffs and the area for the public, it looked empty, and perfect. It was a regular occurrence when the beach was empty when the weather was bad. Running to the top, I turned my music up and sat on the edge of the cliff, dangling my feet over the very top and watching the wave's crash beneath me. The wind whipped my face and I raised my head to the falling rain and closed my eyes, welcoming the refreshing feeling of falling water on my face.

Looking down, I took the locket form my neck and opened the closed heart. Inside it, were two pictures. One of my mother, and another of my father and me. They had given it to me the Christmas before they died and I had worn it everyday since. Dropping it back inside my shirt I closed my eyes once again and let the sound of the wind and rain and waves take me away.

Taking a deep breath, I inhaled the fresh air for the second time that day and sighed in contentment. But suddenly, over my music I heard the deep voice of a boy behind me. Pulling my earphones out, I bolted to my feet and spun round to see the faces of the La Push gang. Ten boys stood in front of me and I recognized each one of them. I had run into them more then once at school before, and I had never left happy.

"Why if it isn't Lonely Lizzie… what are you doing up here?" Collin teased, refreshing a forgotten nickname of the past. This is where I had learnt all of my resentment, where I had conquered my built up emotions, when these boys took to the game; my whole life had then changed. They were on this planet to do nothing but make it harder for me it seemed at times.

Closing my eyes for the split second to make my next decision, I opened my green eyes to see the smirking, mocking faces of the boys before me. Taking one step back, I could see the looks of confusion pass before they realized what I was doing. It was suicide, and I couldn't find it in myself to care. I had lived with pain long enough to learn all of one thing in my life. To love is to be destroyed. When you find it in yourself to love another person, your setting yourself up for pain and hurt. I had done it so many times, I had lost count. Steph and Jason would be displeased, but they didn't know what it was like. To live everyday alone, playing for the mercy of death to grant you a single wish, to take me with it on it's journey. I had been a good child through my years, I deserved to die while I could still live myself. It was better this way regardless. This one last step would send me flying over the edge.

Suddenly, it felt as if my one last step was carrying the weight of the world on it. Time seemed to slow down, and as Sam, the oldest lunged to catch me, it was too late, I was flying through the air towards the rapidly growing deathly white waters. It was a shrill moment, I felt as if I could fly and the thrill of the fall was heart pounding. The impact of the water stung my back and legs… forcing the last breath from my lungs, and the freezing impact of the water shook my whole body. My breath caught in my throat and as I gasped, the water entered my system and burned my lungs fiercely.

Struggling against the rapids and currents of the water, my body was loosing energy and the temperature was taking its effect on me as I struggled to find the surface. After what felt like years of searching, I lost my direction and interpretation of which way was up or down, and by that point, it had ceased to matter. I had lost the fight, and finally, I could be happy and forget the pain as death would find me. So as I felt my life slip through my fingers, I had no problem in letting it go.

But clearly, fate had a different idea in mind. Because suddenly, two strong arms wrapped around my torso and pulled me from the water and to the surface. Taking a gulp of the crisp cold air, the oxygen burned my lungs and I could feel my consciousness slipping as I was dragged ashore. The sand was warmer then the air and I wanted desperately to bury myself in it. But the shrill yells of a husky voice woke me from my trance.

"Hey! Get up you idiot!" the voice was right next to me and I could feel the panic in his voice.

"What the hell kind of stunt was that you retard? What the hell were you thinking?" the voice screamed as I opened my eyes and the light instantly burned them. Starring up, I saw a mass of tanned heads and black hair above me. Clearing my vision, I watched as one by one, the boys began to clear away, leaving only one or two last.

"Are you okay?" the bigger one asked concerned. But instead of replying, I pulled myself to my feet and stood up. Dizzy from the sudden movement, my whole body began to shake from the cold and ache from exhaustion. My legs felt like jelly and my lungs couldn't suck in the air fast enough. "What were you trying to do exactly?" the boy asked from behind as I started towards my house which was a good mile or two away.

"It was attempted suicide and it would have worked if you wouldn't have gotten in the way." I replied as I continued to walk. At first, it was meant to be a joke… but I couldn't help but think that what I was doing was exactly as it sounded. It was attempted suicide, and I was hoping for it to work in a way.

"You do know that's illegal right?" a different voice this time asked incredulously.

"Yes, Einstein… thank you. Why don't you do us all a favour and report me, maybe I'll get sent to jail and put out of my misery." I mumbled through shivering lips.

"Where's your house?" another voice asked, different from the others. More defined, and younger compared to the others around.

"Bout a mile or two that way." I sighed as I finally turned round and pointed in the direction of my house.

When I turned round, what I didn't expect to see was all ten boys starring at me questioningly. Wrapping my arms across my chest, I made an attempt to hold myself together; worried my violent shivering would eventually force me into a nervous break down or shock. The air seemed thicker and my head seemed to get lighter and lighter. My body felt as if it would fall over any second and collapse into the sand.

Suddenly, my legs buckled from under me and I could feel the air fly past as I fell towards to sandy beach. But before I could make contact, I felt a pair of strong arms steady me and pull me back to my feet. Looking up to meet the eyes of the boy who caught me, I turned my head to find myself starring into two dark brown circles and I saw my life flash before my eyes, and he was in every bit of it. I couldn't force myself to look away, I was trapped, and at first, it was wonderful. But I looked away suddenly and shook my head, this couldn't be happening, I can't be falling for this. Not now, not with him.

But it was impossible. His warm body against my cold one, his strong arms wrapped safely around me, and the static pull that seemed to force me towards him. For a second, it was as if nothing else mattered, all there was, was him. Nothing and no one else. The sand and wind had disappeared as did the raging waters. We weren't standing in front of his friends, and he wasn't just the same old cocky pack boy who had harassed me all through school. This was the boy I was meant to spend my life with, the one who would save me.

Yet reality was natural and sometime I had to wake up from the stupid fantasy. Still feeling his hands around my torso, I quickly pushed them away and straightened immediately. Feeling the tears begin to streak my face, I bolted across the sand, running as fast as I could forcing my small legs to run and pushing harder when I felt them fail under me. There had been a pull, I was falling for Brady, the La Push pack boy, and I hated it.

As much as I enjoyed running. This brought no joy, no freedom as I ran. I could hear the angry waves and the vicious wind. I could feel every shiver wrack my body and I could see every tear blur my vision as I silently cried. But after what seemed like forever running, my big empty house came into view. Running through the back door, I bolted up the stairs and into the warm shower. Praying I would escape this action without shock.

Sighing, I sniffled and shivered as the hot water ran down my tense muscles and loosened my body. The longer I spent in the shower, the more I forgot, and the less painful it was. Pinning my hair up, the only remedy I had for my pain and cold was a bunch of pain killers and a warm blanket with the TV beside me. Drugged, I lie on the couch and allowed the slumber, due to the pain killer overdose, take me under.

Waking up the next morning, nothing seemed better. I was sick, and not just physically, I couldn't wrap my mind around what was happening, or the fact that I had fallen for not only a boy that I despised, but a boy I hardly knew. I remained on the couch for days, refusing to move for anything other then what I really needed. Letting the pain eat me away to nothing, I finished the pain killers within the first few days, but nothing was helping. I couldn't make anything go away.

My sleeping hours were scattered, I couldn't sleep some nights, but could do nothing but sleep for days straight at times. I had lost track of time and who I was after a while. I couldn't force myself to remember anything I needed to and though I desperately wanted some, I had run out of pain killers to drug myself with, to forget with.

It was always dark and gloomy, but the sun and light hurt me, and I figured I was in enough pain for now. But when Stephanie and Jason walked through the front door in high spirits, they were immediately pulled from their celebrating by my shocking state.

It took all of one whole month of missed school and constant trips to the pharmacy and hospital. Steph and Jason swore they would never go on another trip together and leave me ever again, and they made me promise to never go cliff diving again. When they asked who pulled me from the water, I had to lie. I couldn't handle all the stories all ready, or the questions. So I told everyone I swam out of the water, and continued to keep to myself. But the pull I felt for the boy who stole my heart that day continued to torture me through every agonizing second that passed.

I found myself watching him more at school, and turning to catch his stare on my back. I couldn't help but know that the pack would talk to him about me, and I could do nothing but run from the building. Brady was handsome, more so then I ever could have imagined or noticed before. His hair was cropped shorter and spiky; he was tall and built like a tower. Muscular and lanky in some ways. His smile and laugh were like music to my ears and I hated every second of it. People say when you love someone enough; you'll be willing to give up anything for them. But in a way, I was a bridge over the separation for both sides. I felt as if I couldn't live without him, and everyday seemed to make me feel more the same and it continued to get worse. But I had my whole life in front of me. A whole life full of people I'll meet that will learn to love me for me, who will respect me and praise my friendship. People who will give me everything I've been deprived of here, in this place. Everything I deserve.

The beach was cold. And as I walked, my thoughts on the days past seemed to grow louder. As if I were trying to run and they didn't want me to leave. They continued to grow in volume in stressful voices and as I stood on the beach, the wind blowing my hair and the splashing water staining my long, pale legs, I could concentrate on listening to what my mind was telling me to do. But at this point, it was screaming for me to find Brady, or go to him. Closing my eyes, I tried clearing my mind and breathing in and out, but his eyes and face continued to get caught in my head.

Sighing, I gave up and opened my eyes to look out to the stormy waters. "You're a pretty one." the whisper came from beside my shoulder. I could hear his breath on my neck and it sent shivers down my spine. I desired for someone to finally tell me a compliment such as that, but I yearned for _his _voice. _His _breath on my neck that sent pleasant shivers down my spine. Not a cold voice such as this one.

Standing rigid in the same spot. I felt the being walk around to the front of my body before I saw it happen. He was tall and big, towering over me with skin as white as the clouds above and eyes as red as a ruby diamond, red as blood almost. His skin almost sparkled in the dim sunlight and as I took an alerting step back from natural instinct of what was dangerous and what was not, the creature smiled and his eyes flashed at the sudden act of fright.

"Tell me girl. Has anyone ever told you how beautiful you truly are?" his voice was cold and harsh, but he spoke with an understanding. As if he knew exactly how I felt and why. Slowly shaking my head, I held my ground and watched as the boy's head slanted to one side as he shook it. "It's a shame, because it's true. And I hate to take the life of such a natural beauty, so I'm going to let you live, but with a price."

The truth in the stranger's voice was horrid and challenging. But holding my ground, I knew the dangers of standing against him. I knew I had now put my life on the line, but I couldn't find it in myself to care. If I were dieing, I would go down with at least some dignity. My breathing stopped as he leant his head towards my neck and inhaled deeply, as if he were smelling me. "Hmm, intoxicating. Like nothing I've ever smelt before." he sighed and leaned closer.

I could feel his lips brush over the skin on my forced, exposed skin and as he kissed me softly and gently, I shivered at the touch and attempted to move away, but in an instant, a pair of vice grips was wrapped around my torso forcing my body against his own. The panic set in and as I struggled against his grip, I couldn't find it in me to scream, it was as if someone had taken my voice. When suddenly, the weight was gone as so were the lips, but as I sailed through the air, I couldn't help but see the blurs of dark brown and white skin.

Landing with a mighty crash, I saw the dead log before I hit it. Out of nowhere, air wasn't good enough and the blackness and pain that had struck my ribs and stomach were over whelming. I felt my life slipping through my fingers, but as I heard the shreds and metallic screeches, I couldn't help but question as the pain took over my body and knocked me unconscious a split second before I began to feel the skin on my back tear down on a diagonal.

Waking up to white walls, everything was sterile, too sterile. The scent of rubbing alcohol, plastic, and hand sanitizer filled my nostrils and broke me from my sleep. Opening my eyes, everything seemed blurry and as I pulled my arms towards my eyes to rub the pain away, I found I couldn't move them. Squinting my eyes shut, I blinked many times before finally opening them fully and taking in the scenery around me.

At first, all I saw was the white ceiling and a bright, blinding light. But as I lifted my head, I saw all the medical equipment and IV's for a hospital, and machinery that looked to be something used by a person on their deathbed. Focusing on the colours around me, I saw Steph and Jason talking and arguing a group of males outside the window in the door of the hospital room. Assuming I was in the hospital, I searched desperately for the remote that controlled the incline of the bed. Finally finding it, I pressed the button for my bed to move up, and hearing the noise, Steph and Jason came into the room immediately.

Everything seemed to be going smoothly until I reached a certain point of incline. My back broke out in a burning pain and such agony flared through my rib cage I figured I would have died from searing pain. Suddenly, everything seemed to be moving in slow motion. I restrained against the guards of my bed and the harder I pulled, the more I hurt. How I wished to be back at home on my bed, and suddenly… with a burst of air, I was laying on my queen bed in my bedroom back home with my head propped on the pillows and my arms free. The hospital nightgown still hung-over my shoulders and tied at the back, and my hair in a wild mess around me.

Shock began to settle in as I looked around at my room and my hands and arms. Everything seemed to be attached, but I had teleported from where I was, to my bedroom, the very place I was desperate to go to. All I did, was picture the place, and want to go there. Thinking of the hospital and bed, I imagined myself lying on top of the covers and restraints and in another burst of air and wind; I was greeted by the same sterile welcome.

Opening my eyes, I looked around again and I was lying on the bed of the hospital and searching for an answer, I met Stephanie and Jason's eyes and rapidly assumed they knew more about this then I was guessing, and they knew what was happening to me.

"Wha…" I whispered but my breath came up short, proving my lungs not strong enough for the change at the moment.

"We'll explain everything when you wake up Nicky, don't worry. I promise it'll be okay." Steph's voice was calm yet worried, as if my time was limited… and as far as I knew, I had plenty time. She seemed frightfully uneasy about the situation and Jason still seemed to be in shock. This new concept was scarring me, and I wanted nothing more then the warm comfort of my parents. At least I had something to look forward to when I woke up.

I watched as the nurse walked into the room with a needle and plunged the tool into my arm painfully… sending me into a state of unconscious once again.

* * *

I had this story up before, but I'm not sure what I'll do with it.

Review and tell me if you **WANT ME TO CONTINUE!**


	2. Chapter 2: The Secret

**You and Me**

_Inspired by the life and times of a great person and an even greater story._

**Chapter Two: **_The Secret_

**Nicky's POV.**

I could hear the voice's around me, every scrape of a chair outside, every heavy breath taken by the person laying next to my bed, every beep of the machine beside me. I couldn't force my eyes to open all at once, but as they slowly did, I wished they wouldn't have. It was the hospital, my memory was blurry and I couldn't help but moan as I attempted to move, but found my limps and muscles still heavy with the drug they gave me.

Every inch of my body hurt and as I looked around, I saw Brady, one of the pack boys sleeping in a chair beside my bed. As I motioned to get up, I must of caught the eye of Steph and Jason outside, because within seconds they were by my side, arms outstretched, their eyes begging to find someway to help me.

"Hey…" they whispered lightly, wow… that was really the best they could do? My eyes felt heavy and my body weak. The scratchy sheets irritated my skin and as I sat strapped to the bed, all I could think of was… _why in the hell is Brady sleeping beside me? _

"How are you?" Steph asked quietly.

Smiling, I tried to hold back both my tears and laugh when I answered. "I've seen better days." I watched as Brady stirred beside me but didn't wake up. "You have some explaining to do." I added more quietly after.

Steph and Jason looked at each other worriedly then took a seat on either end of my bed as they spoke to me. "You have to listen… understand that there are things, or… people in this world that not even science can explain Nicky."

"Things only a selected number of people have knowledge about."

"You remember the stories, the bedtime stories I used to tell you about when you were little. Then as you got older I reminded you about this tribe's legends and their people." Steph stared at me, almost sadly. Her eyes begged me to understand what she meant, but my mind couldn't process what she was truly saying to me. It was if there were a block hiding everything I remembered being told as a child. "I never lied to you Nicky. They are people like those in the legends around here. Shape shifters, and, and cold ones. You remember those don't you?"

My mind was spinning and I could feel my temple begin to ache painfully as I tried to take in everything Steph was saying to me. Shaking my head a little, I attempted to clear my thoughts and focus on what was happening to me, what they were trying to tell me.

I could feel my eyes pop from my heads and as my heart pounded in my ears, I tried to grasp to concept they were trying to explain. "Are you seriously saying that _thing _that attacked me was a… cold one, a vampire? And what attacked it, was a... a _shape shifter_?" my mind paused, like it had been rendered blank under stress, or shock.

"Have you guys lost your mind?" I was yelling now, my voice shrill with anxiety, and as Steph and Jason tried unsuccessfully to calm me, I couldn't force my nerves to stop.

My heart was pounding in my pulse and ears, my hands were shaking like crazy. My body was entering a state of shock and no matter what I did, I had no control over what was happening. All I wanted was to go home, but not in the house, the beach. With white sands and warm breezes. I could feel my body tremble and as my temperature began to rise, I couldn't help the violent shaking that started.

"Brady! Brady help us!" Steph was hollering as she grabbed hold of my forearms and shoulders and Jason tried to hold my feet down while still calm me with his words. But as I struggled and gasped against their grips, nothing compared to the vice grip of strength that four hands had keeping me on the bed.

I didn't want to stay here, not with these crazy people. What if Steph and Jason had lost it? What if they were going to hurt me? They were actually falling for these legends and acting as if they were real. It was if they had lost their minds.

Suddenly, behind Steph and Jason's restraining grips, were two more. Opening my eyes for the first time, I found myself looking into the eyes of the person holding me down. Brady, the boy that was just sleeping hung over me in a simple bend as I struggled. His eyes boring into my own, I couldn't help but already begin to calm under his gaze.

"Nicky, I need you to stop." it whispered, the voice that seemed to make all the difference. The voice that controlled my body. Because as I fought against the commands of the voice, nothing in my will power compared to the strength that seemed to hang behind the words of the boy towering above me.

"What they say is true Nicky. And I am one of those shape shifters. Almost like a werewolf." his voice was soft and gentle. Seeping into my brain like some violating gel. And as much as I wanted to panic, and lash out, act like any normal person would… his voice and eyes were my own, as if we were two halves of the same person.

My mind was in a different place from my body and I seemed to have no control over either. "They imprint Nicky, they find soul mates, their other halves. They belong to each other, love them uncontrollably, and there is never anything they can do about it. You belong to me Nicky, I'm your soul mate, I can be anything and everything you've always wanted." his voice was husky and soft. Entering my head like an unwanted leech and sucking all of my will power away with it.

Locked in the trance, as all the hands removed. I clamped my eyes shut and tried to take in what had just happened. Clenching my fists, all I wanted was to disappear. Go away, escape. And suddenly… my pulse began to grow and my temperature began to rise to alarming rates. I felt as if I was building up and up, and as I reached my peak, I exploded into a heap on a soft and grainy surface.

Letting out an ear piercing screech, it felt as if I had just jumped of the cliffs at First Beach again, only shorter. The wind and the rush. But my landing was nothing like it should have, nothing like I was expecting. Opening my eyes, I looked into the light and as they focused, I saw where I really was.

The beach, the very place I had wanted to go since I awoke this morning. It was like magic. Smiling to myself I made the effort to comprehend what was happening. I had, transported I guess… to where I needed to be, where I wanted to go the most. Like falling but instead of straight down, I had fallen into the last place on my mind.

It was like teleporting… but, simpler, I tried to test it out, see if I could tap into it and control it. Closing my eyes, I focused on my bedroom in the mansion on the water, the soft downy bedspread and pillows like clouds. My seat along the glass window holding me back from the ground below my room. As my pulse climbed faster this time, I was on the ground somewhere else. Somewhere with white carpeting surrounding and covering the floor and a scent like no other. Raising to my feet I smiled spinning in a circle and looked at the scene before me. My dresser and desk, my school books and guitar. Everything was exactly as I had left it last.

Changing into my clothes, I slowly assessed the damage. It was bad, but not life threatening. I had badly bruised ribs and scars that were as white as paper on my back that were ice cold to the touch. The house was quiet, too quiet, and I couldn't shake the feeling of being watched. Every door and window, it felt as if someone was watching me through them.

Outside was no different, everything seemed unsafe, unprotected. Breathing in the salty air from the sea, I spun around to face my stalker. But what I didn't expect to see was a large brown wolf. As big as horse, he was crunched down on his hind legs. My pulse picked up and as I tried to wrap my mind around what was happening, I put every part of my will power into trying to imagine a place where I would finally be safe. Somewhere, or someone… that could help me. And as I found myself staring into the dark brown eyes of the animal, I was locked, captured in his gaze.

Taking a deep breath, I swallowed the fear of being defenceless if the animal attacked. The harder I tried to leave, or go somewhere else, the stronger the pull between this animal and I became. It was if he were holding me down, tapering me to the spot. An odd feeling of trust and adoration for this animal swept through my body, safety and reassurance tugged at my skin as I extended a hand out almost as if to touch the animal, foolish… but undeniable.

Suddenly, the animal turned round and bounded into the forest behind me. Part of me wished he wouldn't have gone, and begged me to yell after the animal… telling it to return to me. But I couldn't make myself do it. I wanted nothing to do with these animals or any more danger. If anything, I wanted to stay in the somewhat safe confines of my home.

But as I watched the forest carefully, a rustling in the bushes spit out a dark skinned boy. In shorts and bare feet, I found myself starring at the body and face of Brady, the crazy person I was supposedly bound too. As he approached, two things hit me at once, two choices. I could turn and run, or… I could stay and face this boy and all his mysteries. Finally giving into the weakness his presence, and thoughts of him gave me.

His pace slowed as he neared me. And in a split second, I had made my decision.

Spinning on one heel, I bolted down the beach, ignoring the aching protests from my rib cage and forgetting everything holding me back. I could hear his pounding footsteps following me, and for a moment, I truly believed I would turn around and face him head on. But subsiding to my stronger defensive side, I put away the pull I had established and pushed myself harder. Wishing I were hundreds of feet from where I was now, I looked behind me for a spilt second and saw the blur of his body.

Feeling my pulse and adrenaline grow, in a flash, I was hundreds of feet away form my pursuer. Imagining the top of the cliff I had first met face to face with Brady and all the pack boys. I pushed to go towards there and in a second, I was on the ground huffing and puffing, greeted with the cold blast of wind that shook my body violently.

Curling up in a ball I couldn't stop the sobs that began to wrack my body as I slowed down everything running through my mind and took in what was really happening around me. Brady and the pack boys, how many times I had suffered from verbal abuse or gossip at school. The lack of parental relationships I've had. Mom and dad leaving me at such a young age. Everything that's happened to me over the years. Nothing seemed fair.

Girls walk around every day talking of boyfriends and fights their in, what hair product they've recently bought and the next new make up that's come out. I have non of that, and I never will. I've been through enough through my life to know that how I live my life right now is the end for me. I will always be the same and nothing is ever going to change.

I don't know how long I stayed atop the cliff before sleep took over my body and I fell hard into a deep slumber, oblivious to any activity around me. So when I awoke in a dark room with the blinds shut and a blanket placed over top of me. Panic struck me first before I heard the reassuring voices outside of the door and the comforting smell of a fresh spring day. But suddenly, everything came rushing back. I fell asleep atop of the La Push cliff.

My bones were stiff and my head felt too heavy for my body. So rising from the bed was harder then I expected. Everything seemed harder suddenly and the hole world was against me. I had been attacked, imprinted on, discovered a supernatural talent, run away from home, and discovered I was in love with someone I hardly new.

Lifting my aching body from the bed, I felt my way around the room until I found the handle of the door. Giving the small knob a subtle turn, I pulled the door towards me and walked out of the room into a small living area with a TV and old couch. The room had the faint smell of moth balls and old people, and as I walked further into the room, I could see all three of the living, dining and bathroom in front of me. Stepping soundlessly throughout the living area, I sauntered towards the dining room where Brady and three others sat on the table in front of him.

Ducking behind the wall that stuck around the arch, I listened carefully as the elders and Brady whispered violently. "Brady… she's a threat, there's no telling what she could expose or accomplish this fast after her transformation."

"But sir, she hardly knows how to use her powers, don't eradicate her before we know the extent of her powers. Maybe we can harness her gifts and prove her useful. She's my mate, not only am I struggling to have her accept me, but I don't know if I can take it if you get rid of her this fast." Brady's voice was torn, I could hear his voice catch in his throat before he got the chance to speak anymore.

The guilt that built up in my heart and head seemed to block out everything around me. I was causing this, the hurt of Brady and the inconvenience of these elders.

"Brady, we understand your dilemma. And although the dispatch of this young girl would go against our own rules, we must take into consideration the safety of our people. Jumpers are dangerous and risky. Especially young ones. You see young wolves, how easy it is to loose control and hurt somebody, it's like that with Jumpers. We will give you four months. Four months to prove her existence is of nothing to worry about."

My breathing caught as I listened to what they had to say. They were telling Brady that if I couldn't prove to him and the old men that I was nothing to worry about, they were going to kill me and there was nothing anyone could do about it. I was that dangerous?

"Yes sirs." Brady answered formally and lead the men from his home. Sighing when they left, I gulped loudly and as I heard silence, bolting for the bedroom door, I opened it and closed it slowly, allowing the clicking noise to alert Brady of my awakening.

Walking into the living room, I watched as Brady stood awkwardly before me and scratched his head worriedly. I could see the dials turning in his head deciding what move to make next. "I…"

I cut him off before he could make a fool of himself, "How did I get here?" I asked quietly, wrapping my arms around my torso self-consciously as if to hold myself together or hide from this person in front of me. I knew the answer before I asked the question, but I wanted him to say it aloud.

"I found you on the cliff and you looked cold, I figured your house was further away then mine and decided you needed some rest. So I brought you back here." his voice matched mine. Self-conscious and quiet. Insecure and unsure, he seemed to be unable to speak. "Look, Nicky… I'm sorry. I know we didn't have the best first impression, but how about we start over?"

I couldn't help but shiver as I heard my name roll off his tongue, loving the way he spoke to me, it felt as if I could melt in front of him. But I knew why he was doing this. He had a job to uphold, these were just orders.

Seeing the advantage over me, Brady took my stutter into thought and used this excuse to close in. Taking a step towards me, I was incapable to step away due to the mixed senses and feelings running through my body.

Brady was in front of me in a flash of an instant. Towering above me, I put my hand on his chest as if to push away from him, but my world crumbled around me. Suddenly, everything was different. I saw Brady through different eyes, and everything seemed different, then… it was as if I were inside of his mind. All I could see was his thoughts and me through his eyes.

Pulling my hand back, I gasped and took a step back. "Brady… I…I." stuttering in front of him, I felt as if I were the biggest idiot in the world. Closing my mouth, Brady moved slowly and smoothly, reaching down, he put his vice grip arms in my shoulders and picking me up, he sat me on the couch. Once again, the flash in his mind was there, as if I could see what was happening through his eyes.

"Nicky, I don't know how to explain this, but you can't run away anymore. You're my imprint, I've imprinted on you Nicky. You're the chosen one for me. I don't know how to explain it… but we were made for each other. It's involuntary, we were made to be together, to love each other. Never will we love someone else like we do each other. I can be anything to you, a friend, a brother, a lover, or just Brady. But I need to know, I need you Nicky." his voice was urgent behind the worry and sadness in his eyes. He gripped my shoulders again but as I focused on what was happening around me, I could shut his mind out. Shaking my head, I couldn't wrap my mind around this concept, it was as if there were a block.

"Brady-… I…" pushing away, the sudden fear of getting to close or serious struck me. I can't deal with having someone else's responsibility. Being in control or having power over anyone. "I can't make this decision." I whispered quietly.

"Nicky! Stop! This is who you are, you can't ignore it any more! This is for you and you only to choose. Nobody else matters." his voice was pounding in my ears, his grip tightening around my shoulders.

Flashes of his mind, thoughts and sights were engulfing me and as I struggled harder and harder to continue focus on my own thoughts and feelings, my anger seemed to prove more effective for dominating control then being reasonable.

"No! I have lived my whole life alone and I won't become someone's pet!" my screaming seemed to catch his attention. Dropping me from his grip, I fell to the couch and locked in on his eyes. Starring me down, I felt as if I were the smallest being in the world set against the biggest.

"Brady, I have been alone ever since I can remember and I refuse to be made a pet of some boy. You don't know how hard I have tried to change for you, for everyone so maybe someone somewhere will finally except me for what I am. But I'm sick of pretending, I'm sick of acting like there's nothing wrong and going on as the happy child. I can't live like this anymore! It's killing me!" I yelled in pain shrieking for every fibre of my dear life. Brady just looked at me, starring at me like no other person ever dared too.

"You don't understand. I can't live with a friend, or a brother, or a lover, or just Brady. I have been through enough to know that now… I have to stop, I can't go on living as if everything will be okay, because it's not. Don't think you're the only one that feels this Brady, because your not. You have no idea what I'm dealing with right now and I don't want another reason to fail someone. I can't live with the pressure anymore."

"I can't live without you Nicky. You'll never have to change for me, never." Brady whispered clutching me and bringing me closer.

"That's what you don't get. I will, I'll have to change so much." I whispered, my voice weak from mental exhaustion.

Starring into my eyes, I hadn't time to think before his lips were crashing against mine passionately. At first I didn't know how to react, it was as if I didn't need air, and suddenly… the more I tried to pull away, the more Brady held on to me. Giving in, I couldn't help but hate myself for enjoying it. Arching my back, I could feel every aspect of his body sculpting to the shape of my own. It was a perfect make, as if we were made to fit.

Unexpectedly, everything flashed before my eyes. My life, Brady's life, what I could do, what he claimed he was capable of. Suddenly, I got scared. This wasn't just some game, this was life, and I can't be what he wants.

With all my might, I pressed against his body and forced him up. Smiling, Brady stared into my eyes with lust and roughness. As if today were his last and every last minute he wanted to spend it with me. His boyish smile and teenage reaction seemed to bring me back to reality. "What do you think rich girl?" his voice was deep and husky, coarse with lust.

"I-…" I couldn't speak. My head was still dizzy from the kiss. A rough chuckle escaped his lips and as he breathed in deeply, I raised to my feet. Scared that I maybe feeling something for this boy, I headed for the door, but Brady got there before me, closing it in my path.

"You need to make a decision Nicky. It's your call." he whispered quietly. All sense of humour gone.

Stopping him before he could start, I quietly whispered a quick apology and ran from the room. Racing out the front door the first place I wanted to be was my own home.

The rush and change didn't strike me as it did the day before, and I couldn't help but feel the emptiness of being away from him brought once again.

My hole world was crashing down around me, I knew what he was asking of me, I knew it all to well. But I couldn't be that person, I couldn't be that for him. And as the minutes passed in silence, I found myself more and more attracted to the idea of trying to go back and convince Brady other ways, or he would be stuck with someone who couldn't give him what he needed, and he needed so much from me. The pressure of his future laid all in my hands, and I couldn't help but see that I was destine for failure.

* * *

**Special Thanks to:**

**mmc3654 **- _Thanks for the review! I can't wait to know what you thought of this chapter!_

**i took the night12** - _there were more chapters but I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with the story so I was planning to take it off and do some work to it, but I couldn't help but regret the decision. Thanks for the review!_


	3. Chapter 3: Hide or Go Freak

**You and Me**

_Inspired by the life and times of a great person and an even greater story._

**Chapter Three: **_Hide or Go Freak_

**Nicky's POV.**

_My hole world was crashing down around me, I knew what he was asking of me, I knew it all to well. But I couldn't be that person, I couldn't be that for him. And as the minutes passed in silence, I found myself more and more attracted to the idea of trying to go back and convince Brady other ways, or he would be stuck with someone who couldn't give him what he needed, and he needed so much from me. The pressure of his future laid all in my hands, and I couldn't help but see that I was destine for failure._

The sound of the rushing water below me drown out the noise of my own sobs. I had wanted to go home, not to the cliffs, it was too easy for him to find me here, to simple for him to capture me once again. When I wanted to go home, I had never thought of where exactly I wanted to appear. Weather it be my parents house on the water, or my favourite place in the world. But not here, anywhere but here.

Unable to change or focus, I turned and sat by the water. Huddling my knees up and wrapping my pale arms around me. My head rested and as I watched the blasting and vicious waters below me, I couldn't shake the temptation of diving towards the waters below at alarming rates. The rush of the wind, the spray of the water. If only it would really have so much of an effect on me.

I had sacrificed so much to live through every day and get over myself. Happiness and family, the pleasure I so strongly assumed I deserved. Everything had been a lie. It was true, I would change for Brady if it meant that in turn I could make myself just as happy changing who I really was. But I had heard what he had agreed to do. It seemed foolish, like in every movie and fantasy, the girl assumes the boy doesn't love her so she runs, in turn only ending back up in the arms of him once again. I had always thought the idea so cliché, but when you are the one hiding and listening as your heart pounds throughout your ears painfully and his voice enters your head, it's truly impossible not to know if his love is fake, his love is false.

Courted, desired, played… anyway I tried to summon up Brady's mission sounded cruel and inhuman. Like ripping apart a little puppy in order to fulfil the demands of people who have no idea what their dealing with. At this point, I felt like the puppy. At some point in my life, I promised myself I wouldn't fall in love, I wouldn't have kids simply because I didn't want too, I wouldn't marry because marrying someone was only asking for pain and torture. Sooner or later everyone turns against you, weather it be at the peak of your life, or the very start… it's going to happen weather you like it or not, I fear that's just how it's meant to be for everyone, me included.

The branch cracked behind me, and just as everyone of those stories and movies, I assumed it was the wind… not willing to move from my spot. But just like all the cruel writer's plans in the end, it wasn't. Suddenly, strong arms snaked under and around my torso and hoisted me upwards brutally, lifting me from the ground and spinning me around rapidly. For once that day, I felt a flash of shear terror. It was Brady, his nostrils flaring and his eyes burning with lust and anger, buried behind the white hot fury of his instincts.

"God damn it Nichole! I don't care where you run or where you hide. I will always be there to bring you back." his grip on my upper arms tightened painfully as he pulled me closer to inhale his intoxicating scent. "Tell me you hate me. Look me in the eyes and tell me that you never want to see me again. That you don't want to talk to me, you don't want me to hold you or kiss you or look at you for the rest of your life. Reject the imprint, do it Nicky if your so determined to drive me crazy and kill me with this torture your putting me through." his eyes flared some pain but immediately were covered over when I didn't respond. "Do it." he hissed ferociously, a growl burning deep in his over worked chest as it rose and fell rapidly.

"It hurts Brady." looking away, I couldn't bare the anger in his eyes anymore. His grip had tightened more, to the point were I thought if it not for being who I really was, Brady couldn't have crushed me by now.

"I don't give a damn if it hurts Nicky. Tell me what you want, 'cause I'm sick and damn tired of trying to get it right."

"I can't be who you want Brady. I can't have kids with you, I can't be the loving wife you really need. I can't grow old with you, or give you everything another woman can. I can't pleasure you the way you want, I can't stand to be threatened or scared, I will be the stubborn ass that I know I am and fight for your happiness until my heart stops beating, weather it be because of the imprint you assume we share or not, I want to see you with someone special Brady, I can't live with myself if I know I'm holding you back. Save me at least my dignity and find a woman that will have your children and give you the pleasure and release a wife should for her husband, the ideal soccer mom that can cook and clean and is _normal._" by this time, Brady had dropped me to the ground and his grip was gone. He glared at me with hatred behind his eyes as I looked to him and begged him to grant me at least my pride.

"I'll stay, I'll stay in La Push so the elders see I'm no threat. I'll stay and save the grief from my mother and father. Then, I'll go. I'll leave you so you can be normal and try and focus on just being happy without me." it broke my heart to speak the words. But as I felt my eyes betray me, his did not. He never faltered from the glare he had taken to and as the words left my mouth the glare only deepened.

"If this is what you want." stating his anger clearly, Brady turned on his heel and walked away, leaving me broken and unfixable on the ledge of a towering cliff.

"No, but it's what you deserve. A woman to make you happy that can give you everything. Unlike me." whispering to myself, I visualized the house and in an instant I was standing outside of it. Walking cautiously towards the front door, I sighed before opening it and stepping through. Steph and Jason were pacing the floors of the kitchen as I stepped through the cathedral arch.

"Jason, Stephanie… are you okay?" I asked, not trusting to voice that irrupted through my own lips. Suddenly, their heads flew towards me and in a instant, they were at my side hugging and thanking god that I had returned safely.

"Did you know. Did you know what and who all these people were, what I was?" I asked as they took and step back and looked at me smiling. As if I had hit them, the smiles wiped off their faces and they looked to each other for support before gulping down air and turning back to face me.

"We've been on the council for a while, we knew what you were, what you could do. We hoped that it would skip you, but when you panicked it set in, the protective side of it. We promised Sam that if the change were to take place, you would spend as much time with them as possible. Training and harnessing the power that sat behind your gifts. But we were never sure. So after you showed an interest in battle and fighting, we let your senses take control and train your body to the perfection it is now."

"So you knew? Well who else is like me?" my world was crumbling around me and I had no escape to the terror that came with deciding on my own future ahead of me.

"No one that we know of. They have all been killed or captured. But there are many Quileute's that are like Brady. Collin, Seth, Leah, Quil, Embry, Jared, Paul and Sam. And more are coming every couple of years as it happens." Jason answered the question as if it were the easiest thing in the world.

"Yeah, and it just so happens there's a bon fire tonight we've all been invited too, to get to know eachother. All the boys and their imprints will be there, it's a great opportunity to get to know them. We were planning to go also, if you don't mind."

"I don't feel to well, go without me. I'll stay here and sleep it off."

**One Month Later**

"Nichole, it's good to see you again. We haven't heard from you in a while." Sam and Emily smiled while running past in their swimsuits as I sat on the log on the beach of La Push and watched as the water crashed violently along the shore. There was no denying I had attempted to escape the get together again, but I couldn't help but see the disappointment in Steph's eyes when I tried to convince her to let me stay home.

Short jeans shorts and a dark blue pullover hoodie masked my face from the fire as I watched everyone in the water. Jared and Kim, Sam and Emily, Leah, Seth, Collin, Paul, Embry and Brady… along with his new girlfriend. Her name was Ashley Colt. Tall and slender, all the right curves and curly strawberry blond hair. The kind of girl that never missed a date, never ran out of her favourite cherry lip gloss, owned but one pair of track pants and slept in silk pyjamas every night. The perfect princess, polite and bubbly, eventually… and though no one dare show it, she got on everyone's nerves.

But I would rather get on these people's nerves then look up to everyone and see the looks of pity they gave me. I was breaking, away. Sam had taught me everything he could, I had been helping patrol on nights he was short, and loosing sleep as nightmares of past memories and unexplainable happenings flooded through my mind. But the hardest part was seeing Brady with Ashley. I had given him up, and every morning I wake up and crave his presence, every night I loose sleep knowing he's making love to a girl I pushed him to, and everyday I regret the decision I made to save what I thought would be his soul as much as mine, but I was wrong… very wrong.

Every time I looked in the mirror, I saw someone else. With paler skin and a thinner body. Sickly tired and unnaturally cold all the time. Eyes that once stood as open windows to a broken soul, were now subdued to shattered glass looking into a nonexistent heart and mind. My head pounded when I lay it down at night and my stomach was ill when I awoke in the morning. Steph and Jason had me on countless medication, and nightmares of a scarce past haunted my every move.

I had become a stranger to myself. Not knowing what was up and down, or who I was anymore. It was unexplainable. No one would tell me why I was acting this way, or why I had become so physically ill. Everyone stayed clear and neglected to begin a conversation when I joined them. I felt like an outcast, an intruder.

"I'm going to go for a walk." standing from my seat on the log, I turned and walked barefoot in the grainy white sands as the darkness highlighted the moon overhead. My hood was placed over my hair as shivers wracked my thin body mercilessly and I wrapped my arms around my torso, praying somehow all this pain would just float away. Just like the hospital from what felt like forever ago, I wished a nurse would walk up to me any second and plunge a needle into my arm and through me hard into a sleep I would never wake up from. Everything would be so much easier.

The night air was crisp and as the sounds and voices of the bonfire eventually drifted away, I found my thoughts becoming louder and louder by the second. In an instant, my mind was screaming for help, for a rescue to come save me from this mess. Groaning, my hands flew towards my head and as I fell painfully to my knees on the sands, the next sound that appeared shrill through the night air clearly did not belong to me. It was a moan, one of such pleasure that appeared to occur closer then I thought.

Suddenly, the pain through my head subsided as I looked from the silky white sands to the rocks up ahead. Silently, my feet carried themselves towards the noise and as the groans and gasping increased rapidly with each careful step. I couldn't help but wonder. Within the next few feet I traveled, there were no words to explain what had happened. As I straightened my back, I came into complete view of the couple. And just as if planned by the gods to curse me forever, I saw the brown, deep, malicious eyes of Brady and the top of Ashley's head.

Though I saw nothing but his eyes, I couldn't help but see the pile of clothing discarded to their left. As their bodies moved in the sick ironic rhythm, Brady growled and smiled as my heart flooded into my throat and air seemed nonexistent. Not even bothering to discontinue his movements for the sake of another person present, I couldn't help but feel the silent tear drip down my face as my heart literally ripped from my chest.

Suddenly, all I wanted were Steph and Jason to take me home. So as if in slow motion, the next decision seemed to take to long as I watched before disappearing as Brady captured her lips again.

All I ever wanted for Brady was to be happy. Happy and as normal as he could be with someone who could give him the world. I never wanted to hurt myself more then I already had when I gave him up the first time. But I have seen so many things and never have they consisted of the vicious hatred and lust that poured off of Brady as he pleasured his girlfriend. Never had I felt so used, such pain as I did.

Landing in the sand beside the campfire, my body hit the ground with enough force to break bones. But nothing compared to the pain that continued to course through my insides. As if he personally were shoving a burning spiked iron rod down my throat and churning my insides to pieces. Everything burned. I could feel the tears running down my face and as I motioned to rub them away, only more red stained my shirt. As if on cue, I felt the pressure leak from my head as the blood gushed from my nose and suddenly bile gathered and even red fell from my mouth.

In an instant everyone had gathered around me, but as time ceased, all I could see were the eyes of fury still glaring at me as I stared into the fire burning my eyes. Everyone moved in slow motion as I saw the worried faces of everyone dive for my body. Seth had gathered me in his arms and was lifting me from the ground as Sam yelled directions and demands to every person with in the area. As blackness swallowed my body, all I could do was lay paralyzed and think, that if anything in the world, I wanted to be the girl in Ashley's position. But as the blackness carried me further and further away, all my thoughts stayed focused on the horror of what had played out before me.

The faint whispers were like music to my ears as my eyes fluttered open and I looked around sceptically. It felt as if I had been asleep for years and never changed at all. My insides still felt as if they were being slaughtered all over again and I couldn't help but feel the relief that washed over me as I awoke from the horrors of my past nightmares. The only thing I had lived with as I lay unconscious were the scenes that had played out before me last night and the haunting colour of my red blood. Moving my arms slowly to position myself upwards, suddenly… two cold hands were steadying the top of my body. Making sure there was no way for me to fall.

"Nicky, I fear that maybe you should relax for a while and let everything sink in. You lost a lot of blood." his warm honey voice calmed me and as I turned to look around. Sam, Emily, Steph, Jason and Seth Clearwater all stood watching me. But the person holding me I had yet to see.

"What in the hell happened to me?" I asked pathetically. My voice raspy and my throat burning.

"You seem to be taking this imprinting rejection pretty badly. I never knew symptoms could become this bad. If you strike the same nerve you did last night again, I can't assure you you'll wake as good condition as you are now. What happened?" the voice was concerned as I looked from each face saving his for last. Golden eyes and pale skin reflected the memory of my first encounter with one of them on the beach. A vampire.

"Didn't you know?" I asked unbelievingly. Sam and Seth were in a pack with Brady, from what I knew, they heard his every thought when he ran with them for patrol.

Shaking their heads no, I shook my own and looked from their expecting faces to the window and stared subconsciously as I spoke. My voice eerily calm and collected. "Well it seems Ashley and Brady were more serious then I thought. Better book one of the local churches soon Sam, because I don't see any boy making love to a girl that hard and not marrying her. By the demonstration he forced onto me last night, it wouldn't surprise me if in nine or so months, you have yet another little wolf running around… if you catch my drift." I could feel the tears gather behind my eyes as I looked from the window back to everyone's face.

Pulling my hand up to catch my tear, yet another drop of blood stained my sweater as I grimaced and looked away from the sight. Swinging my legs around, I wrapped my arms around my knees and rested my head on them as I stared for the window again.

"I told him, I told you all never to get that involved with the girl that is not your imprint. Now you'll all see why that is." Sam growled from beside Emily as her head bounded towards Sam and a look of shear horror passed her eyes.

"You mean to tell me this is all because Brady refuses to fix this himself. He is deliberately trying to sabotage this girl's life?"

"Emily, Brady is strong. He can take lots of pain and never blink an eye. But you Nicky," Sam looked from Emily to me and starred deep into my eyes, as I if I were the hardest puzzle to ever cross his mind. "… you seem to be in enough pain. But the next time he tries it, I don't know what shape you'll wake up in. I have never felt such hate come from one person. He loves you, don't get me wrong he has too, but still… it's as if he has no heart." I could see Emily quivering in anger at one of the boys. Clearly she never thought of Brady to be this kind of person.

"I told him no." their heads snapped towards my in sudden shock. "I rejected the imprint because I knew he was never meant to be with me. You all need mothers to carry the genes of he Quileute tribe to the next generation, and I won't do it. I don't want to get married or have kids. I want to see the world, I want to fit in and here, I know as well as anyone else I never will. Everyone here has found their flash of happiness and joy… well I refuse to be the only one forced to live unhappy. You don't understand. It was suppose to be just me and him, nothing else mattered, yes I know that's how it's destined to be. But I won't be the one to hold him back. Even if it means I have bleed to death and watch Brady make love to every available woman in America. I will take whatever pain that has to come my way as long as I am not the person holding him back. I don't care what you say, because he hates me, and I know it better then anyone here. Believe me, I've felt it."

"We can talk to him Nicky, because it's only going to get worse from here." Seth's voice was sympathetic and caring. As if I were no different from a friend he would speak so kindly of.

"It's not right. Brady made the final decision, and I'll soak up all the pain in the world until my own death if I have to, he is the one who had changed, not me. So if he chooses to make me suffer, then so be it, but nothing will be better for me then if I disappear." heads snapped forward and eyes widened as I looked to each of their faced and nodded apologetically. "Mom, Dad, Seth, Sam, Emily, do me a favour?" I could see the confusion in their eyes, but they nodded nonetheless. "Tell Brady to go to hell." and with that, everything changed.

Unsure at first, all I wanted to do was disappear, to someplace somewhere no one would ever find me. A place where I could suck up all my pain and let it eat me away to nothing. So the only place I could think of where I had felt some of the most pain throughout my life, was the exact place I had gone before to think over so many things. But there was nothing to think over, I had made my decision. All I ever wanted was to make sure Brady could live as normal as possible. I had given up everything for him to do so. But there was no way I would stand to be thrown down so far from where I had given in.

All I ever wanted was to be happy, to live and breath, and sing and dance and take life as it passes me by. It was never suppose to turn out like this. I was never suppose to turn into a monster, never suppose to fall for Brady or break my own heart. I was never even suppose to force the only person I'll ever love into the arms of another girl. But no matter what I tried, or what I did… nothing would ever be the same.

The amount of time I had sat beside my mother and father's tomb stones I had no idea. I had lost track of time as the grey skies of Washington hid me away from everyone. The silence of the graveyard was eerie and unsettling, but it was better then the voices of the people that brought me back to La Push and all it's memories. Anything was better then that.

"You know running away isn't always the answer to everything." I turned on the voice as my arms remained wrapped around my knees. The face I didn't expect to see was Seth, I had seen him before, but he stood silently in Sam's pack of protectors. Now, in a way I see why. He was nothing like the rest of them.

"No, but it's the answer to my everything." I sighed as head turned back round and he talked to my back. In a way, I craved the presence of someone to talk to, someone to understand.

"And why is that?" he grunted as he sat beside me, assuming the exact position I had.

"You wouldn't understand wolf boy." I through back as he starred at my face, obvious curiosity sitting behind his brown eyes.

"Then make me rich girl." he challenged, smiling when I turned and stared into his eyes.

"What's left to explain?" I asked myself more then him as I stared out along the rolling fields of grass. "I tried. I tried to fit in, to be normal, to live like everyone else. Then Your pack came along, and I thought you guys were suppose to protect people. For the first time I was reassured because I knew their was someone else out there fighting for me. But all any of you ever did was push me down when I had already fallen." I could feel Seth stiffen as I spoke calmly, ignoring his sigh and shake of the head.

Before he could cut in, I continued using the same tone. "You terrorized me to the point, that when I jumped the cliff that day Brady pulled me out, I hated all of you for saving me. I could feel death, it was coming, I could see it. And you guys saved me when I didn't need saving. Then when I looked into Brady's eyes, and I saw the hero, the savoir I had been waiting for all my life… by that time, I didn't want one anymore. I didn't want another reason to fail someone, or to hold someone back. I had sacrificed so much my hole entire life, I wasn't just about to give up everything I had left for the sake of some involuntary breeding process. That's all it is. You need someone to protect and have your kids. But I won't stand for it. I refuse to give my life to someone who doesn't love me. Because Brady hates me, he always did. Now, just because he hit some wolfy puberty phase he thinks he can just bounce around and claim me when the actual love behind this imprinting is really fake. If that boy love me like my father loved my mother. I wouldn't be sitting here bleeding from god knows where and he wouldn't be out there playing with another girls' affections. I can't get him out of my head and I don't know why, I do not, and will never love Brady because after everything I gave up so he could have at least a little bit of a normal life, he damned me to hell."

"It's not like that." Seth sighed after a few minutes of silence. "Imprinting _is _involuntary, but it's fate giving you a push in the right direction. Helping you find the person you're meant to love. Yes your suppose to have our kids and you're our main reason for protecting, but you're made to love us. Weather you women like it or not, us big mutts are the men you'll always be in love with." Seth's deep chuckle bounded in his chest as he sighed once again. "Brady was made for you and you were made for him. You can try forever to give him the normal life you think he deserves but the only reason he'll ever hate you, is because he tried so hard to make you see, yet all you could think of was making him happy, and it's his job to do that. His responsibility to make _you _happy."

"All I ever wanted was to be happy. To fit in. When I met Brady, the first time he got to me, I felt as if I were there, as if he could be my everything and anything. But I got scared. This isn't how it's suppose to happen." by this time, I was angry… and no longer was I speaking to Seth, but I was finally admitting something to myself.

"If I had had half a mind, I would have told Brady exactly how I was feeling, but how could I? All my life I've been pushed around and ridiculed, I've just been waiting for the chance to do somebody some good. And if I've had to wait this long, then clearly there's something wrong with me. You guys had it rough, so I wanted Brady to live the normal life nobody ever let me. Subconsciously, all I ever wanted was to see my happiness in someone else. But my definition for happiness has always been _normal. _That's what I yearned for growing up, that's what I strived to be. And now, I refuse to beg for anything from Brady or anyone because if he doesn't love me enough to fight for me until the end of time… then there is no point in me trying anymore, if he won't fight, then neither will I."


	4. Chapter 4: Breakeven

**You and Me**

_Inspired by the life and times of a great person and an even greater story._

**Chapter Four: **_Breakeven_

**Nicky's POV.**

"_If I had had half a mind, I would have told Brady exactly how I was feeling, but how could I? All my life I've been pushed around and ridiculed, I've just been waiting for the chance to do somebody some good. And if I've had to wait this long, then clearly theirs something wrong with me. You guys had it rough, so I wanted Brady to live the normal life nobody ever let me. Subconsciously, all I ever wanted was to see my happiness in someone else. But my definition for happiness has always been normal. That's what I yearned for growing up, that's what I strived to be. And now, I refuse to beg for anything from Brady or anyone because if he doesn't love me enough to fight for me until the end of time… then there is no point in me trying anymore, if he won't fight, then neither will I."_

Two weeks had passed, I couldn't talk, couldn't hear, I couldn't think about Brady without bleeding out of some part of my body. Most of the time, it fell from my eyes, as if my heart were pouring out in salty tears of pain and sacrifice. At times, things felt better, but then something or someone would pull me back down.

Seth had been my savoir, after that day in the cemetery, he had taken me home and convinced me to stay. He listened to what I had to say, and didn't criticize me for what I thought or how I felt, after a while, he returned to the house, talked to me at the bonfire and even took the chance to claim me as a friend. Now, there was no separating us, and as much as that scared me even more… I couldn't find it in me to give up the last tie to earth I had left. The last tie to my own life and my own stupid decisions.

I had even taken the chance and entered our school's talent show. Never before would I dare to enter anything, but now, as I attended Forks high school and turned everything around, made a name for myself… I had gone from quiet and lonely too quiet and powerful. The confidence seemed to seep into my veins as I took to the stage and adjusted the microphone as I looked out to the crowd.

It was a Wednesday night and the gym was packed. Steph and Jason were seated at the back of the gym with Seth and I couldn't help but smile as I walked on stage and he cheered more then anyone, he knew how different it was for me to get up and perform, but that made no difference to him, he would cheer as loud as he could and pray the hole school would hear him… then, when they did. He would stand up and cheer louder. As the music started, I listened to the quiet beat at the gymnasium suddenly erupted into silence.

_I found God on the corner of First and Amistad  
__Where the west was all but won  
All alone smoking his last cigarette  
I said, "Where you been?" He said, "Ask anything"._

_Where were you when everything was falling apart?  
All my days were spent by the telephone  
That never rang and all I needed was a call  
That never came to the corner of First and Amistad  
__  
Lost and insecure you found me, you found me  
Lyin' on the floor surrounded, surrounded  
Why'd you have to wait? Where were you? Where were you?  
Just a little late you found me, you found me_

In the end everyone ends up alone  
Losing him the only one who's ever known  
Who I am who I'm not, who I wanna be  
No way to know how long he will be next to me

_Lost and insecure you found me, you found me  
Lyin' on the floor surrounded, surrounded  
Why'd you have to wait? Where were you? Where were you?  
Just a little late you found me, you found me  
__  
Early morning the city breaks I've been callin'  
For years and years and years and years  
And you never left me no messages  
Ya never send me no letters  
You got some kinda nerve taking all I want_

Lost and insecure you found me, you found me  
Lyin' on the floor where were you? Where were you?  
Lost and insecure you found me, you found me  
Lyin' on the floor surrounded, surrounded  
Why'd you have to wait? Where were you? Where were you?  
Just a little late you found me, you found me  
Why'd you have to wait?  
To find me, to find me 

I smiled as suddenly the lights flickered throughout the gym and for the moment of stardom, I sat before the crowd and listened as they chanted and clapped in appreciation and praise for something I had done. Waving as I left the stage, Seth's booming hollers became louder and more pronounced, but as I walked off the stage, I found Jake standing beside Steph with a video camera. Taking off through the crowd I couldn't afford to let that get out, I couldn't put up with it if anyone else saw that video.

No one but Seth new the meaning behind that song and he had been sworn to secrecy once already, but I'd never live it down if it got out. "Jake! No!" I yelled over the crowd of cheering people around me. "God Dammit Jacob Black Stop!" He was aloud in La Push, as was Seth, but the others stayed in La Push. In a way, at this point I really wished Jake wasn't aloud in Forks. My elbows flew up and as my desperation to get to the back exit grew, suddenly, my skin started to heat up and in an instant I was there, Steph and Jason panicking when they saw me. I was gasping and trying to control myself. I wasn't aloud to jump for the past while, doctor's orders.

All it did was weaken me. Take my energy and drain me even more then I was. Over the past week I've gotten to know everyone a little better, Jared and Jake, even Embry and Paul. They never called me by name, always Rich Girl or Jumper, but I had learned to live with it, just like family. Over the time, they had made me feel like I belonged, made me feel comfortable. But there was no denying the difference between us all, I refused to forget where I stood and where the La Push Pack Protectors did before this incident happened. People can change, but not that fast.

"Nicky, not here. Someone will see you." Steph said as she pulled me close and lead me out the back exit, the one we were closest too. Wrapping her arms around my shoulders, I couldn't help but shiver as I hit the cold night air. The clouds were heaving, holding back a down pour and the stars were nowhere to be seen. Running to the car, in attempt to speed everything up, I yelled for everyone to hurry, I didn't have enough time before Jake would take the tape back and show everyone.

"Hurry up! He can't show anyone!" I struggled as Steph, Jason and Seth looked at me sceptically.

Not wanting to waste time, my temperature began to rise as I found myself in Sam and Emily's living room not seconds later. My breath was coming in short ragged intakes and I was doubled over. Never had jumping required anything but my thoughts, now… it seemed more convenient if I just walked to where I needed to go. Everyone was gathered around the TV and Jake had already plugged in the video and had started it. Looking from their faces to the screen, I watched as all the guys starred at the screen and saw my face appear. Jake had zoomed in so close, I didn't even know he was there. Watching face, I could see the smile in my eyes and on my face as I waved to Steph and Jason and Seth.

The silence filled the auditorium as I looked out to all the faces, listening as the music started. The pain I found in my own eyes actually took my breath away. Was this what I looked like all the time? As I started to sing into the microphone, I found never had I looked so comfortable yet so rigid before. Weather it be from the nerves of performing, or the potential behind the song. I felt as if I had become a hole new person. My eyes locked to the screen as the room filled with silence, suddenly… I stopped and waved as I walked from the stage and couldn't help but see and hear Jake screaming. This earned a chuckle from everyone, but the muffled laughter grew as he span the camera to himself and ran from the gym.

"_Hey everyone! That was our own little Nichole up there on stage! Wow! Just wait till you see her face when she sees I've shown everyone this. I new there was a reason she refused to tell anyone about it. Well, everyone but SETH!" _Everyone chuckled at Jake's stupidity as Embry and Jarred playfully pounded him on the shoulder. _"Seth and Nicky sitting in a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G. She's gonna kill me when she finds out!" _

By this time, everyone seemed to be laughing but me, Ashley was sitting on Brady's lap giggling and Brady looked as tense as ever. Suddenly, I wished I could melt into the floor, maybe people stomping on me would be less painful then this. I could here my voice in the background and apparently, so could everyone else. "_God Dammit Jacob Black Stop!" _Praying the tape would end, I couldn't help but cringe as he spoke again. _"Brady, encase you were wondering, I was interested in your imprint, since you left… I think she could become a real star, wouldn't mind if I took a go would yeah? She could make me rich!" _His voice was taunting and playful.

"That was uncalled for." Sam frowned as Jake looked from Sam to Brady and back again. Their faces I couldn't see, but their posture didn't seem the greatest.

"Well who can blame her for writing a song about my Brady-pie, he's adorable!" Ashley giggled as she rubbed her nose against his, making me want to gag. The contact made me sick, I could feel the tears behind my eyes as my knees grew weak and I fell to the counter for support.

"That pour girl, can't she see that Brady has moved on? I mean, how desperate can you get?" Ashley's words cut through the air like butter as everyone silenced and she continued to chuckle. No one assumed she would say such a thing, but as my heart ripped from it's chest and I could feel the tears begin to fall, her last words were like ice down my back. "What? I hear you all when you whisper among yourselves, it's not like I'm saying something new."

I couldn't believe my ears as suddenly, a flash of white shocked my body and pain scorched my every pour. As if someone had lit me on fire and was brutally watching me burn to death. Collapsing, my body wretched with vicious power as my stomach poured out before me, showering the space before me in blood. Spitting the remains of the bile and blood down onto the floor and wiping away my tears as well as the remains on my sleeve, I looked up to see everyone starring in utter disbelief. Refusing to look them in the eyes, I turned my head to the side and looked out the window.

"I think… I think that maybe next time, you should look around before you talk about me behind my back. Just a heads up for the future." taking a shaky step towards the door, I couldn't help but see the silent tear fall down Emily and Claire's face, good. Maybe they would feel a single thread of the pain and hurt that whipped my body every second.

Suddenly, a quiet, pained voice called out for me. "Nicky… I. Let me help you." Brady had stepped forward against all odds to shine in my darkest moment. His eyes filled with pity and hurt as he looked at me, but starring deeper, I couldn't miss the look of disgust and regret that was laced in behind his sudden fake emotions.

"Brady…?" I started as I took a reassuring step towards him. Everyone's breath hitched as I starred into his eyes and smiled a little. I could've looked better. This would have been easier if I were decent. But the emotions riding through my body were flashing a million miles a minute. Pain, hurt, rejection, love, adoration, jealousy. He had stood before me against all others to be my knight in shining armour, to help pick up the broken pieces. I could feel myself on the verge of tears as he took my hands into his. The next words would change my life forever…

"Go to hell."

I hissed the words as I wretched my hands from and spat on his bare feet. Everyone turned from the relief that had filled them at the sudden moment we seemed to have finally clicked, to disgust and utter horror. The 'Rich Girl' Elizabeth Nichole Tombs had taken the perfect moment she was meant to last forever in, and turned it into a riling hate story. Walking from the house I refused to look back when Steph, Jason and Seth pulled into the driveway and got out of the car. Horrified by my sudden state.

"What happened honey?" Jason asked worried, running a reassuring hand through my loose hair. Looking from him to Stephanie, then saving Seth for last, I couldn't help but feel the regret seep into my bones.

"It's over." I whispered as I lowered my head and looked anywhere but their faces. "I tried guys, I tried for everyone. But know one understands anymore." I explained as I finally averted my eyes to the heartbroken and pained ones of the mother and father figures I had only ever known. Stepping aside, I looked into Seth's eyes and begged him to understand. Wrapping my small arms around his torso, I held on for dear life and refused to allow him to go.

Looking at me surprised, I stepped back and tried to smile as he starred at me shocked. "You're the only one who knows. You're the only one who got it. I didn't hang out with you, or invite you tonight because I liked you as a boyfriend or anything like that. I did it because you were the only person in the world right now to understand what I'm going through. You're the only one who sat down and listened to what I had to say. You where there. Weather it was so I could beat the crap out of you when I was angry, or cry on your shoulder when I was upset. You were the best friend and big brother I've always wanted. Every secret I told you, every detail we shared, you have no idea how much it meant to me. And I told you, because I know you'll understand. When I go, and you're the only one who knows the reasons why I'm gone. I trust you'll do the right thing, weather it be to hold the secrets I entrusted you with, or tell them to the people desperate to find me. You are the only person in the world I would trust them with and I've only known you for a short while. I love you Seth, you're the big brother and best friend I have yearned for all my life, and I'm sorry I couldn't do for you what you did for me. But where ever I am, I will never forget you. You will be in my every thought." I smiled as suddenly, I disappeared from his sights and left. Vanishing into thin air and leaving them wondering where or when they would ever see me again.

**Seth's POV.**

"…You will be in my every thought." stepping back, she smiled as I couldn't help but smile back at her, at least giving her the reassuring smile no one else dared to. Knowing all to well what was truly to come, I watched as if in slow motion, Nicky faded from my picture, weather it be for the day, night or week, maybe even forever… at least if she left, she left knowing there was someone she could trust.

"Seth," Sam's booming alpha voice called out over everyone as he stepped forward and looked at me as if I had lost my head. "What's going on?"

"What's going on? What's going on? She's gone Sam, she left. I don't think there's anything else that's going on right now, unless you have something different in mind." looking from Sam to Steph and Jason, I couldn't help but see the looks of pure sadness filled their eyes as they embraced and hugged each other. "I am so sorry." shaking their heads, I felt the grief flowing off of them as I turned and motioned to walk away, but before I could… Jason had pulled my arm back.

"I know, Seth… that what Nicky told you must have made us sound like the less of parents then what you would think," I motioned to cut in and disagree, Nicky had said they were great people, great family, but it was parental figures she needed, not friends. But before I could get a word out Jason had began again. "But if anything, I am so glad that as a parent, at least her last few days with us, she was happy, and she was with you. It's good to know there are still people in the world who care, even if it be a little. She thought the world of you Seth, and in a parents eyes… that made all the difference."

"I would do anything for your daughter Jason, Stephanie. And you have to know that where ever she is, at least she'll be happier there, then is she stayed and put up with the pain here. I have no doubt she will be fine wherever she goes. I thought the world of Nicky, and I'll love her like a sister until the day I die." I smiled as Stephanie gripped my hands in her small ones and thanked me. Apologizing once again, I turned to the house and looked up to see all sets of eyes on me, starring as if I had lost my own head.

Brady glared at me with all the hatred in the world and more. "You can hate on me all you want, but at the end of the day. I helped her more then you ever will." I hissed, my body shaking at the thought of one stupid person laying a burden so big someone like he did to Nicky. "You didn't even take the time to get to know her. And now you will never know."

"She didn't want to know me…" Brady hissed, his body shaking with anger just as strong as mine.

"That's a load of shit Brady and you know it. All she ever did was say and admit that she thought she wasn't good enough for you, that's it. She never said she didn't want to be friends or hang out. You assumed. And now she's gone, and she's not coming back and it's all because of you and your little Barbie doll clone over there."

Brady's body shook with menacing anger as he glared at me and as Sam yelled in protest, nothing stopped him from leaping off of the porch and attacking. Sending him flying back and landing with an audible crack. Phasing also, I lunged for his neck with just as much, if not more power. Throwing him into a nearby tree and taking the fight into the forest behind the house.

_How does it feel to drive her away Brady? Does it feel good to know she left for and because of you? Does it? _my words echoed through his head as I could see her in his mind. The weakness he felt when she was near, piled on top of the pain and resentment he felt towards her.

_BOTH OF YOU KNOCK IT OFF! _Sam's alpha voice rang through our ears as he walked from the bushes and growled ferociously. _Seth, this is non of your business, it was Brady's choice. And Brady, you have no idea what you've done. By rejecting the imprint as strongly as you did, you may have just ruined her life forever, and all because you overreacted. She did what she thought was best, even if it wasn't the best choice. There's nothing either of you can do about it._

Growling once more, I turned and walked further into the bushes, phasing back and returning home to put some clothes on. The last thing the drove through my mind were the words that Nicky had told me but hours before she finally left. Words that at first I never understood and thought foolish, but now understand.

_A wise girl kisses but doesn't love, listens but doesn't believe, and leaves before she is left._

* * *

So what do you think?

Continue, or give up?


	5. Chapter 5: Collide

**You and Me**

_Inspired by the life and times of a great person and an even greater story._

**Chapter Five: **_Collide  
_**Brady's POV.**

"_And now new teen pop sensation Nicky Tombs hottest song of the month, Nobody's Home." _the radio had blasted the report world wide as I stood watching Ashley smash the ball back and forth on the beach against her friends. She was good, but not the best. _Nichole could have beaten her without so much as a sweat. _Cursing myself mentally, I couldn't get her off my mind, out of my head. She was driving me crazy. Though everyone knows we tormented her more then help protect, Nicky never went unnoticed. Honours and athletic awards that could have easily surpassed anyone person from any school alone, sadly… not even that could take away her reputation.

The next song was just as good as the last, equal in meaning, equal in the charts. It seems as if my Nicky has taken her experience and knowledge and thrown it into something no one was expecting. Maybe a book or a movie would have been suited, but no one thought that Nicole Tombs for the small town of La Push would rise to the occasion such as she did. And it was every imprints worst nightmare.

Nothing can blind you from the fame and fortune that a teen pop sensation receives on a daily basis. Sometimes… the fame even surpasses your own feelings and emotions when your caught as deep in it as Nicky was at this point. But worst of all, she still seems to maintain the down to earth potential to remain herself through everything, so she stills continues to forget all the new styles and trends and points our heartbreak out to the world, even if she doesn't know it.

_I'm still alive but I'm barely breathing_

_Just praying to a god that I don't believe in_

_Cause I got time while he got freedom_

_Cause when a heartbreaks it don't breakeven_

_His best days will be some of my worst_

_He finally got a girl that's gonna put him first_

_While I'm wide awake she's no trouble sleeping_

_Cause when a heart breaks no it don't breakeven_

Throwing the radio across the beach with a mighty chuck, I watched as it satisfyingly crashed into one of the giant boulders across from me. By this time, all the girls had stopped their game to look at me. "Hey Ash, I'm going to take off and see the guys, I'll see you later." rising up off the ground, I walked over to her and kissed her on the head, sweat dripping down her face asked she acknowledged me and waved goodbye. Walking down the streets in my bare feet and shorts, I couldn't help but run the lyrics from all of _her _songs through my head again.

_And I'd give up forever to touch you  
Cuz I know that you feel me somehow  
You're the closest to heaven that I'll ever be  
And I don't want to go home right now_

_And all I can taste is this moment  
And all I can breathe is your life  
Cuz sooner or later it's over  
I just don't want to miss you tonight_

_And I don't want the world to see me  
Cuz I don't think that they'd understand  
When everything's made to be broken  
I just want you to know who I am_

_And you can't fight the tears that ain't coming  
Or the moment of truth in your lies  
When everything seems like the movies  
Yeah you bleed just to know your alive_

Her song 'Just Want You To Know Who I Am' had swept the nation and touched hearts everywhere. Nicky Tombs had released her first song not weeks after she had left me, and but a month later, her album had been released. Seth had bought the disk and left it too me, turned to the page where the artists leave their shout outs.

Seth's name was there, as well as mine and Ashley's. Each song had been dedicated to the pain and torment she had endured while I remained entertained by her sadness. The pack thinks me cruel and heartless, but to hear the words she said when I met with her those first few times tore me in places I didn't even know were flexible. Brady, the one night stand… had been tamed by an outcast he hardly knew.

Maybe spending so much time with Paul wasn't the smartest of all ideas, but it always kept me entertained and energetic. With a new girl hanging off my arm every week, I was unstoppable. Now, I found it hard to tear my thoughts away from the one girl I couldn't have let alone try and focus on the girl I had pledged my love to in the first place, but undoubtedly, I heard how many times I had killed her inside through her own songs, her own voice.

It wasn't as if I never felt her pain. I could never not feel what it was like to see what she had. I couldn't imagine what it would have been like if she would have done the same to me, but in a way… she did. To hear the small words of rejection leave her lips were like dying all over again. Like the pain of changing from human to shape shifter tenfold. In a way… hurting her as much as I did shouldn't have been possible, not human… not supernaturally possible. But taking the pain I felt… and turning it to anger that I deserved to feel more seemed to make all the difference in the world.

Turning pain to rage… means finding the way of life that you can live without regrets, that you can live on top of the world and care for nothing that comes your way. It was ideal, it was perfect, but it wasn't possible. Every time I denied it, or pushed myself deeper into the rage that I had consumed myself… all I could see in my future was a wife and family I would never be happy with. And I had given myself that.

Her album, 'A Wise Girl' had gone double platinum by the time she had released a second CD. Changing her everything, she was barely noticeable anymore. Her hair, her look, everything. Now, she was idolized across the globe, and I couldn't help but hate it. Every breath of air she took while famous, was one more breath of fresh air that she was free of me. I wanted her to hurt, I wanted it to hurt so bad she would come crawling back, but she was stronger then she came across.

Never did I want anything to go this far. Never did I want to find myself walking the streets of La Push alone and empty, because without her, without Nicky that was all I was. Empty. Like they had taken my very reason to breath, my reason to live. Like time had frozen on the spot, leaving me to bask in the same pain everyday. Actually, that was untrue. Every second that passed when I stood near, or heard Seth, that… was pure pain. His very presence reminded me of her, her once care free laugh and smile. Ever since she had gone, it was as if he had lost his source of light.

Like Seth Clearwater had forgotten how to smile or laugh. He patrolled day and night to forget, to forget what _I _had done, let alone what he had let her do. Eventually, everything had changed. As Seth drifted into a zombie like trance of pain and suffering, he slowly got better… as if she were there with him all the time. But every time I'd mention it, he would shrink back and glare, as if I had stolen something very dear to him. Though I may have not known everything, there were some things he just couldn't hide from me, especially when patrolling.

The letters flashed through his head every once in a while, like dreams. Nicky hadn't packed up and left him without so much as a trace… when Seth reached the worst part of his depression, as if Nicky knew of his sadness, the letters started to flow. One every week, talking of her life and adventures as she rose to fame. He had begged her on several occasions to return to him and they could run away as friends. Escape. But though she would refuse, Seth wouldn't give up his determination.

It felt as if she had sent letters to everyone in La Push, everyone except me. Even Paul had received a letter. Of course it was short and vivid, but it meant something. Never once had she mentioned or asked about me, not even a word.

Walking into the empty house, I couldn't help but feel the irony of the scene play out in my own head. Empty house, empty heart. Everything here reminded me of what I could have had, what I could have shared with her.

Sauntering over to the fridge, I pulled out a small carton of chocolate milk and walked through the house towards the upstairs as I finished it off. I had bought it earlier the day before on my walk with Ashley, but neglected to finish it. Marching past the wooden dresser, I couldn't help but see the top letter on my mother's mail stack. It was addressed to me, in neat and precise writing and I couldn't help but rip it open in desperation to know if it was or was not the letter I was waiting for.

_Brady,_

_I refuse to write you 'Dear' Brady, because it holds the potential I am writing out of the pureness and generosity, but I'm not. I write because it tears me not to tell you these things before. So let's get it over with, shall we?_

_I loved you, I loved you like there was no tomorrow, like the sun never set and the moon never rose. There was no food, or drink, I lost track of time. When I told you I couldn't be for you… it wasn't because I didn't want too, or because I thought you weren't good enough, it was because I thought I wasn't good enough. Everyone there assumes that I had a perfect life growing up before I came to Steph and Jason, and in a way I did. _

_My mother and father were beautiful, they loved each other like every day was their last. Never had I seen such adoration or compassion for another human being. When mom died, the doctors thought dad died of the same causes, but I always knew why he really went… a broken heart. Every summer growing up with my real parents, I stayed with my uncle and aunt, they lived far away and every trip I dreaded going down there. They were mean and abusive. Telling me I would never be good enough for anyone. And after a while… I believed them. I wouldn't tell mom and dad, because they seemed to happy and I couldn't stand to see a frown on their faces, but I couldn't hide the pain forever. Not even I'm that strong. _

_I was scarred, scarred for life Brady and when my parents died they left a mark that could never be healed on top of that. I grew up still convinced I wasn't good enough, no matter how hard I tried. But when I saw you, I was scared. I had learnt to live with the pain and sacrifice of everything I had grown up too, when you made me forget those sufferings, I didn't know what to do with myself. So I let you go, but I never said I didn't want to be friends and learn to live with each other. You were the one that put those words in my mouth, you were the one blinded by your own anger and masked by your hurt. _

_When I saw you with Ashley that one night on the beach, and I saw the anger and maliciousness of your actions hidden in your eyes, I knew no matter how hard I tried, you would never be mine. I had lost you for good. I wouldn't get involved in your happiness, even if it was spiked by anger. I had pushed you away, it was my fault. So every time I bled or cried, I punished myself because it was my own fault. Everything. _

_I assumed imprinting was involuntary, you didn't have a choice, and I didn't want to decide your future for you, I was to scared to try and decide my own future let alone be responsible for someone else's. When I saw that you wouldn't give up Brady, I knew that for once, instead of fighting for my happiness, I had pushed it away. And so, although it truly is my fault, even as I grow old and you move on, I will always love you Brady, and that… is the reason I left. That… is the reason that from here on, I hate you Brady Collins. I hate you because you will be the death of me, and I'm not ready to die yet. _

_I deserve happiness just as much as the next person, and from now on… even if it kills me. I'm going to force myself to move on, to live just as I should be allowed to. _

_Signed,_

The letter was blank, but there was no hiding who it was from. There was no denying the truth, and the worst part about that. Is that it hurts, it hurts to finally have someone that I'll listen too come out and say it, because if it not for that… I may have given up on her, on us. But just because she hates me, doesn't mean that I'll risk loosing everything I am willing to fight for.

Bounding out the doors. I couldn't hold back my anxiety to run and feel the motion of freedom I receive every time I'm set loose on patrol.

_Good, just in time bro! your shift starts in about two minutes! _Jared's kidding voice was the first I head as I focused in on his location, trying to pinpoint where he was, or where he was running to. Thoughts of Kim engulfed his mind as he ran towards their house and phased into his human form, slipping on a pair of pants.

The next mind I linked onto, wasn't exactly the most pleasant. Seth's was remembering a phone call he had received the day before. It made him giddy and excited, lifting his spirits.

_What the hell do you want? _He snarled suddenly, changing his hole mood and becoming defensive.

_I'm just here to take on Jared's spot on patrol. _I replied, defending myself as I ran parallel around the boarder from him.

_I told Sam I didn't want to patrol with you. _He spat. Never had I seen, or heard Seth so volatile. So cold to someone else. Normally he was a cool and laid back person.

_Tell me Seth, what did I ever do to you? What did I do to make you hate me so much? _

_Not to me, to her. _He hissed, a picture of Nichole flashing through his mind. _You have no idea what you put her through._

_That is non of your business Seth, you should have stayed out of it._

_Are you really going to keep up this hole charade Brady? Because everyone including Nicky thought it was old when you first played it to everyone, now it's just down right stupid. _

_You don't know what your talking about Seth, you didn't know Nicky anymore then I did._

_No… your right. All those hours I laid beside her, sat beside her, laughed with her, talked with her, let her cry on __**my **__shoulder, meant nothing compared to how much you knew about her from watching her eat herself up about something she had no control over. Oh yeah… that seems right. _

_Face it Brady, you never cared about anyone but yourself._

Minutes of silence passed as his words burned through my head and I watched as Seth felt no regret at his words whatsoever and replayed them over in his head numerous times.

_She didn't forget. She sent a letter. _I offered, hoping this would stop him from cutting me down, and finally pass me over in attempt to find some common ground.

_Yeah, she told me._

_She did?_

_After all this time, you've really learnt nothing have you? She loved you Brady, and no amount of bleeding or cheating is ever going to make her forget that._

Phasing back and putting my shorts over my naked body, I looked around the now dark forest and found myself dizzying by the second. My head was pounding and the only noise I could hear was the pound of my own heart in my sensitive ears. So much at one point… the sound made me cringe. The world was spinning and my vision began to blur. The ground seemed to be my only safe haven… so sinking towards it, I couldn't help but welcome the hot tears that stained my face.

What had I done?

Though I continued to ask myself that… I couldn't deny the truth of the obvious. Though I wanted so much to forget everything that had happened. There was no getting around the simple facts, I had deliberately found myself stuck in a hole I had dug to deep. And there was no ladder around me.

Her face flashed through my mind. Her hair, her eyes… the way she looked at me before she disappeared from my life. The simple words that meant so much, the complicated songs that meant so little. Everything about her that called to me. Her body, her smell, her voice. And I had thrown it all away for the sake of some pride and anger that meant nothing compared to what I really felt. Nicky was right… never did she say she didn't want to be friends, I had put the words into her mouth. I had placed them there without talking to her and trying to understand what she really meant. Why she was hurting. I wasn't the imprint I should have been.

And though I may have been so blind… I can't help but kill myself inside not knowing that I should have been the one to turn the other cheek, to figure this out early before I took it so far.

"Brady. Man, you have to come with me for a minute. There's something we've gotta tell you." Seth appeared from behind the tree without a moments' notice. And from the look on his face… all thoughts of anger and resentment were gone, and replaced with pity and sadness.

**Fifteen Minutes Later**

Seth had me seated on the couch at Emily and Sam's and I couldn't help but grimace when everyone, the whole pack watched and starred with pity filling their eyes. When I demanded to know what was going on, not one of them spoke. They just stood behind the couch and watched as Seth turned the TV on and looked from me to the screen and back again.

"_Tonight's special, a sneak peak on Nichole Tombs and the life she's been living from inside sources._" the host on the screen starred with intensity and I couldn't help but shrink back when they played out her whole life story. Voicing the break-ups and accusing her of a mental breakdown which is how she found her way to Hollywood and her rise to stardom.

Last, they went into detail as her new life flashed before my eyes. People basking in her light and praising her every word, everything I should had done for her. Pictures flashed on and off the screen of Nicky and people surrounding her every move. One boy in particular, with dirty blond hair that was tall and muscular with a lean body and golden eyes. Suddenly… it flashed. She was dating a vampire. She was dating a vampire artist.

My heart shot up through my throat and suddenly… I couldn't breath. Oxygen wasn't enough and rage filled every pour of my body. Placing a reassuring arm on my shoulder, Sam stood behind me and patted my shoulder. "It's fine Brady. She knows what's going on… she won't do anything stupid." I couldn't help but gather hope from his words, even if it is false.

"_Now, a sneak peak video taken by a bystander at the five star restaurant shows that maybe America's heartbroken artist won't be alone forever._" the screen flashed once and before us seated Nicky and David at the restaurant. David was singing to Nicky into a microphone and tears were slowly falling from her eyes. Suddenly, David lowered himself on one knee and spoke the words that would kill me forever more.

"_Nicky Tombs. I know we haven't known each other for long, but I can't help but feel like you're the one I'm suppose to be with. And though it sounds stupid and utterly ridiculous, the only thing going through my mind right now is what you've told me from day one. __**A wise girl kisses but doesn't love, listens but doesn't believe and leaves before she is left.**_" I knew the line from many times it had played through Brady's mind. And every time, thoughts of me followed.

"_Well I have a proposition. Elizabeth Nichole Tombs, I promise to love you forever more… so lets be unwise together. I'll never ask you to kiss me, just love me forever more. I'll never ask you to listen to me, just believe me when I say I will give up everything for you. And I never want you to leave me, because you are the girl I want by my side for the rest of my life._"

"_Elizabeth Nichole Tombs, will you do me the honours of being mine forever? Will you marry me?"_

The last thing I heard before my heart completely stopped, was Ashley's screatching voice and the dry sobbs. "Brady... Brady, I-I'm p-p...pregnant."

* * *

**Tried the Cliff effect here, but I'm not sure it worked. **

**Any ideas or requests welcome!**


	6. Chapter 6: The Flashback

**You and Me**

_Inspired by the life and times of a great person and an even greater story._

_**Last Chapter Preview:  
**__**Brady's POV.**_

"_Elizabeth Nichole Tombs, will you do me the honour of being mine forever? Will you marry me?"_

The last thing I heard before my heart completely stopped, was Ashley's screeching voice and the dry sobs. "Brady... Brady, I-I'm p-p...pregnant."

**Chapter Five: **_Flashback  
_**Nicky's POV.**

"Miss? Are you here alone?" the voice was warm and concerned, but I didn't care, I had had enough of being fooled. Thanks to a warm voice, now, here I sit by a pouring fountain on a cool summer's night playing a guitar I had damaged so many times I had lost count. With a torn voice and singing a song that made no sense, I felt as if I were the only person on the world. And though it was lonely, the feeling was still tempting.

As I stopped strumming, I refused to turn and sighed, clearing my throat, a sudden anger overtaking my body and rage pouring through my every thought and emotion. It was unexplainable, every time someone came towards me, or spoke to me directly… it was like I had no control, and I didn't. My emotions were a wreck and I couldn't control them either way. It was a nightmare, and my personnel hell. "Life is an ass. Did you know that? Life is all about ass. Everyone's either covering it, laughing it off, kicking it, kissing it, trying to get a piece of it, or simply just being one. You just can't win!" anger blasted through my body, so throwing my guitar off my lap and sanding from my position, I turned to an unexpected face. One I wasn't sure I wanted to meet so soon, but was gladly standing in it's presence.

His eyes shown a molten gold colour, suddenly shifting to black, and his hair blew slightly in the wind. He towered over my figure and his skin was almost pasty white. He was tall and muscular, with a crooked smirk and handsome face. It was like looking at one of those airbrushed photos that you drool over, but know the models don't exist. There was only one explanation for him, vampire. That, or maybe he was just a freakishly good looking man. Or it could be that he's simply got a really good plastic surgeon. I mean we are in the twenty first century.

"If your gonna kill me now, I'm just telling you… this is your loss. I could sit here and complain to you for hours and you'd absolutely love it. I mean, just look at the people swarming around me! They all want to hear about my problems, they all care!" ever since I left, it's been like someone is constantly on me. Somebody always wants something, and something that I can't give them. It annoys me to no end just thinking about it. "Oh wait, hold on. No one is here, because no one really cares! Well isn't that a shocker?"

Recovering from my sudden outburst, he looked slightly amused and I felt as if I were running short on breath. Like the air wasn't enough. My emotions were a jumbled mess and I couldn't decide weather or not to run, or cut my wrist, praying he would take me away from this life.

Leaving La Push may have been the best, or worst decision I ever made. I felt tired and weary all the time and it was like there was a giant rain cloud hanging over me all the time. My heart had tore from my body, and my mind had disappeared, leaving me senseless and utterly disconnected from the world. People say that they find their emotion through music, my only explanation seemed to be that I found myself through my words. And that seemed to work for me all the time.

"Do you always talk like this? Or are you just anxious from your flooding emotions?" his voice was warm and captivating. Like a heated jacket on a cold winters' day. It wrapped around me and filled my body with different emotions, ones I hadn't felt in a long time. "I'm David."

"Nicky." I stated, testing him wearily. I couldn't bare to put my life in someone else's hands. I had learnt my lesson once already, and I wasn't in any position to begin the foolish task once again.

"Oh I know who you are Miss Tombs. You've swept the nation. Touched the heart of millions. I think, that maybe you might be one of the most wanted artists across the globe." he smiled crookedly, making my breathing hitch and change like nothing had before. He reminded me of Brady, our first encounter, the way he made me feel just with his eyes alone. It scared me, it scared me to know that he had an effect, that he made a difference.

"You and I are very much alike Nichole. I believe we could learn to like each other."

"And how is that _David_? You know nothing about me other then what you've been told on TV." I hissed, venom in my voice, wrapping my arms around my torso. Being pleasant would get me nowhere and I wanted to get away from him, and fast. He had no understanding, no interpretation of what it was like, how it felt to be completely and utterly alone.

"I wouldn't be so sure…" he faded off, giving me a knowing look as I turned away. Maybe it was his voice that set me off, or the fact I felt as if he were driving me insane just with his eyes on his back.

"What would you know?" I asked under my breath, cursing to myself as I once again let emotions take my body to places I had tried so hard to avoid. Anger, it only lead to pain later on.

But suddenly, when his voice stayed silent, I prayed a quick thank you considering the fact maybe he let off and left. For I couldn't bare to stare into his eyes again. It was like I was falling for another man all over again and though I deserved happiness. I refused to let myself fall down to the standards the love held.

But as fast as I was moving, I stopped. I wasn't walking away from a towering fountain, and I wasn't walking any longer. Suddenly, as if I had changed myself, I was in a different place, a different scene. It was an apartment. Two stories high and top of the line expenses. With a winding staircase and lateral scenery windows.

"What the hell?" I yelled as I felt alone once again.

"You're a girl, pretty but smart, athletic with a tom boy side and you lost your parents at a young age. You feel pain that you believe no person will ever amount to and as all the years passed though you've always craved to be unique you've wanted nothing but to blend in and be apart of the crowd for a very long time. You mask over a pain you wish no one else to see on a daily basis and you stand strong for the honour that your parents truly are… were, excuse me. At around seventeen you fell in love and were so scared you pushed him away, afraid of commitment most likely. You hide it well but your pain shines through in every song you sing no matter what. He was strong and protective, the faint but permanent marks upon your body tell me that and much more. You loved him but let him go and he hurt you like you were nothing. Treated you worse then you could ever imagine." everything became a blur as his words sunk in. I had lived with the pain before, and I needn't a reminder of what it had been like.

"Stop it!" I screamed out in agony as his voice demanded my attention again whilst he continued.

"He cheated on you and now you sit and watch your life pass by everyday and wish you had made a different decision. You made friends with one of his old comrades and you felt a family connection like no other with the boy… he made you feel again. Sick of the hurt and turmoil you felt everyday you left the small town in pursuit of something bigger and better, and found the only way for your first weeks of fresh pain was to change who you were completely. So out came the hair dye and makeup, changing the way you looked, but not the way you felt. You walk with confidence and arrogance but a hidden pain drags you down like no other and when you play you look as if you are going to cry. And then… the world cries with you."

"You believe you are the only one in the world and you feel as if your life is falling down around you and there's nothing you can do to hold it up. But your wrong. You are young and free and there's nothing better then a fresh start. The pain of loosing something you pushed away kills you and because you refuse to let go of the past, you will never succeed in creating a future. You need someone to patch up the wreck you've created out of yourself but you're to afraid to find someone to do that for you despite the pain you feel. The idea of loosing something you love once again drives you crazy. Now… your sitting here pooling in your own pain because I have reminded you of everything that you wanted to forget but know you must over look to move on."

I sat in silence, there was nothing I wanted more then to sink and die right on the spot. Nothing I wanted more then to disappear for my heart, and soul had been ripped out by this stranger and I couldn't help but cringe as I thought of all the possibilities. "That's not true." I gulped, finding my voice even though I knew how shaky it truly was. "I-I…"

"You, dear beauty… are truly in pain and there is nothing you can do to stop it." by this time, David had sat down beside me and pulled my chin to face him. Now I sit here with tear stained eyes starring into the man that had taken everything I was and torn it apart because he forced me to listen to the truth of reality.

Looking anywhere but his eyes, I slowly and silently sobbed as he just starred at me, waiting and watching as I poured out in front of him. For a moment, I had forgotten who I was, what I was. In an instant, I had left what I assumed was his apartment and was suddenly sitting my mine, welcoming the cool feeling of freedom again and loving the idea of being home. But his voice followed me.

"You cannot run away from me. I may be a vampire but I am also just like you. In an instant you can run away from here in a jump but as long as you leave that jump scar open, I can follow you to wherever, no matter what you do."

"What do you want from me?" I yelled, running through my apartment trying to escape from his warm but hard voice and towering figure.

"I want the chance to make it right. I want to be the one to make you feel because we are the last ones of our kind and if you decide that you don't want anymore of this one day, then jumpers will disappear from the face of the earth and never again will we get the chance to rule. I know how you feel, I have made the same mistakes you have and I want the chance to fix you, because there was no one there to fix me when I was broken." he was sincere and honest. But I couldn't force my body or mind to say the words I wanted too. I couldn't let myself fall again only to be stepped on when I was down.

"I can't." was my only reply. But a whisper in the wind, barely audible.

"Everyone deserves a shot at happiness Nicky, even if you've been deprived of it for this long. You still deserve at least a chance. So I am here to make sure you get it, weather you like it… or not."

**End of Flashback**

That was how it started, weather I wanted it or not, he was here to stay until he saw that when I sent him away, I truly didn't want him with me anymore. At first it seemed like a bad idea, but as time passed, I learned that maybe, I didn't want David to leave. He was tall and strong, he reminded me of the love I once shared and lost, and his presence became a necessity. It hurt me to be away from him, he made me feel hole. It was like gravity pushed me weather I liked it or not. He made me feel like I was suppose to be there, like I belonged.

He was an artist, an athlete, he knew me better then I knew myself and maybe that was what I liked about him. He was the soul I never had, the hidden person within me. Like a twin. He became my podium to life. Leading me in the right direction. He was my Brady in other words, and the more I tried to deny it, the more I began recognized my mistakes.

We were going out, it was my birthday today. And though it had been such a short time, after my delayed aging, I forced myself to forget what it was like to age, to celebrate becoming a year older. But I couldn't deny tonight, it was named Gigg's. A dinner for two at a five star restaurant, I couldn't turn the offer down. It was undeniable.

I was wearing a short, strapless black dress with a white over coat and a small purse. Even a short amount of time here had taught me enough about presentation that I never left the house without looking over myself at least five times. People were just waiting for the chance to tear me down, and I wanted to hold that off for as long as possible.

"Are you okay?" his voice was honey and caring, like the angel in my darkest nightmare, and the knight in shining armour come to save me from my darkest moments. He was the sun, my sun, he was all mine and every time the thought occurred, I couldn't help but curse the emptiness that reminded me. I could fall into the arms of a thousand of men, and never, never would I feel the whole person I wanted too. Never would I feel completely and utterly happy or content.

"Yes David. I'm fine." I smiled falsely. He was an empath, one of few, but powerful. He would sense my discomfort but touch nothing on it. He was the savoir I needed, the truth I would slowly wake up to. He was my laughter and my comfort, the feelings I had thought I had lost. And without him, I would still be sitting by the fountain strumming a guitar and singing a song I knew not of what really meant to me.

"I have a surprise for you." he smiled suddenly before charging from his seat and behind the door that read employees only. The curiosity that swept over me was overwhelming. I wasn't one for surprises, and the amount of times I had told him that amazed even me. But he needed to know I suppose, even in a proper state of mind I had never been able to handle surprises as well as anyone else.

"The broken clock is a comfort, it helps me sleep tonight, maybe it can stop tomorrow, from stealing all my time…" the voice was intoxicating and demanding. Like the sweet rings of pleasurable bells in my darkest hour. His voice called to me like a beacon and begged me to come closer and closer. To make him mine and never give him back.

I am here still waiting  
Though I still have my doubts  
You're damaged at best  
Like I've already figured out

Your falling apart  
Your barely breathing  
With a broken heart  
That's still beating  
In the pain  
There is healing  
In your name  
I find meaning

The broken locks were a warning  
You got inside my head  
I tried my best to be guarded  
I'm an open book instead

And I still see your reflection  
Inside of my eyes  
That are looking for purpose  
They're still looking for life

Your falling apart  
Your barely breathing  
With a broken heart  
That's still beating  
In the pain  
Is there healing  
In your name  
I find meaning

So I'm holding on  
I'm holding on  
I'm holding on  
I'm holding on  
I'm barely holding on to you

I'm hanging on another day  
Just to see what you will throw my way  
And I'm hanging on to the words you say  
You said that I will  
I will be okay

Broken lights on the freeway  
Left me here alone  
You may have lost your way now  
You haven't forgotten your way home

Your falling apart  
Your barely breathing  
With a broken heart  
That's still beating  
In the pain  
There is healing  
In your name  
I find meaning

So I'm holding on  
I'm holding on  
I'm holding on  
I'm barely holding on to you

I'm holding on  
I'm holding on  
I'm barely holding on to you

I could feel the pressure of overwhelming sadness break out inside my head, but my posture and expression remained soulless, I was lost, speechless, anything but normal. And as the spotlight began to shine through his golden hair and his eyes met mine. We weren't surrounded by people in a restaurant anymore, there was just David and I, here… tonight.

Sadly, even the most realistic dreams have to end, such as this one. Starring into his eyes, here… now, realization struck fast and hard. I didn't know who or what David really was. He had handed me basic and obvious information I could have gathered myself, but he had never told me who he really was, or how he came to find me. Even the fact he knew me better then I new myself scared me, I had neglected to tell him anything of my past. How could he possibly know.

"Nicky Tombs. I know we haven't known each other for long, but I can't help but feel like you're the one I'm suppose to be with. And though it sounds stupid and utterly ridiculous, the only thing going through my mind right now is what you've told me from day one. _A wise girl kisses but doesn't love, listens but doesn't believe and leaves before she is left. _Well I have a proposition. Elizabeth Nichole Tombs, I promise to love you forever… so lets be unwise together. I'll never ask you to kiss me, just love me forever. I'll never ask you to listen to me, just believe me when I say I will give up everything for you. And I never want you to leave me, because you are the girl I want by my side for the rest of my life." I couldn't handle my overwhelming sadness and realization, he had spoken the words I had always wanted to hear, but from different lips, and with different meaning.

"Elizabeth Nichole Tombs, will you do me the honours of being mine forever? Will you marry me?"

It was so tempting, the obvious passion and lust laced with is voice called to me like never before as I yearned for those exact words to be spoken to me on a day sometime soon. But is this what I wanted? My mother and father had married due to real and pure love, I couldn't help but feel I was filling a hole I could deny no longer… I couldn't help but feel I was trying to replace Brady.

**Two Weeks Later**

"I thought I smelt something in the air." the husky voice from behind me jolted my adrenaline into overdrive and as I sat listening to his voice, an immediate smile crept it's way onto my face. Though I may have tried to hide it, there was no denying what his voice could do for me, the way his words struck the air, the way his eyes brightened my very day.

"I wouldn't know." I replied back quietly. This was an unthinkable act of immature selfishness, but I couldn't put it off any longer. I suppose the graveyard wasn't the best place to celebrate in, but my parents, my real parents, should be aloud to see me happy at least once more.

Whirling on my heel, I bound forward and leapt into his open arms. Laughing as he swung me round and round. Placing me on the ground, I pulled back to star into the eyes of the real reason I had returned. "It's good to see you again Seth. I've gone crazy missing you in the past while!" my body vibrated on the spot as I couldn't begin to control the excitement sweeping through my entire body. A questioning look tore me from my foolish act, countering my motives and demanding an explanation.

"Why the sudden change in heart?" his voice was curios, and though I cringed from the forward remark. I owed him the truth if nothing. "You seem happier, like… I don't know. You just seem happier all of a sudden." his quizzical look changed my overall thinking. I was happier, maybe it's here to stay. I could begin to like being happy, it seemed to brighten up my day for the most part.

"Well, after I left. And you wrote me back those letters, at first it was hard to find bearings. I couldn't feel anything anymore. Like my whole heart had been ripped out and stomped on. But you see, two weeks ago, someone sang me a song that seemed to wake me up. I knew nothing about anyone around me. I was taking people from my new life, and replacing past memories with them. Like my body guard, he was my Paul. And my manager, she was my Kim. I'm sure you heard about David, well… I wanted desperately for him to be my Brady. But I couldn't make him fit. Life was good, I was happy. But there was something missing." I let my words sink in, leaving them to trail whichever way he assumed this was going.

"I had lost my Seth Clearwater. I had lost my reason to get up every morning, and go to sleep somewhat happy. You were my happiness Seth. And I will travel to the ends of the earth to make sure you find yours. I want you feel he same way I do when I'm around you. So I decided, that maybe I deserve to smile too, that maybe I deserve to have some fun also. And this seems to be one way that I smile. Being with you. Even if I have to bleed for the rest of my life, I won't leave you like I did before."

"Whatever makes you happy Nick." he smiled and placed a warm arm around my shoulders. It felt good to see him smile. It felt good to make him feel. It was something I had gone without for a long time, and I loved being able to make a difference. Being able to make someone else smile for once.

"Well, I have one condition." I smiled as the smile wiped from his face and suddenly he stopped and starred at me shocked. "I have a new roommate." I could see the dials turning in his head.

"You may not like his at first, but I know you'll learn to love him. He's dominating, kind of like you. And you're both very protective of your property. But I found that he's stolen my heart, and though I tried to deny it at first, he really is like Brady in some ways. Only we share a talent together like no one else."

I could visibly see Seth's face grow suspicious and as he peaced the puzzle together, the sudden emotions running through his eyes were tremendously difficulty to understand. Fury, rage, pity, happiness, fear, anxiety and a sudden flash of realization, he knew what was happening. And as his head turned towards my truck, in an instant everything changed before my eyes.

* * *

**Who do you think awaits Seth's eyes in the truck?**

**Now the real question...**

**Should I write another chapter?**


	7. Chapter 7: Thanks

Thanks to all my awesome reviewers. I wouldn't have gotten this far without all your backup!

**i took the night12**: you were my first reviewer, therefore you were the first to help inspire me.

**mcc3654**: Well... considering the past chapters, I really hope you like where the stories going so far. As the very first to ask me to continue, by far... there is no doubt you were a key addition in my continuing this story.

**SaamForLife**: You helped me grow right from the start. And I think your advice was one to help me continue on and one of the main reasons I love writing this story as much as I do! I know you reviewed more then once, so over all a special thanks especially to you for your support on my story.

**Huff-PuffI'llNeverBeBlownAway**: Well, I love your name for starters, unique and cool. Also, I thought it very inspiring in your enthusiasm and how your very first words were 'I LOVE IT!' You were definatly a heads up to keep going when I didn't receive as many favours for my third chapter, and again on my fifth.

**lottie14b**: I'm greatful you not only took the time to read my story, but also voiced how much you enjoyed reading it too. I think it's great when you enjoy reading others' writing and I appretiate your voiced opinion!

**princessbb**: Again, another very unique and classy penname. I think it's awesome that you liked reading my story and enjoyed reading it. Thanks for taking the time to read it over and let me know what you thought of it over all.

**.wolves**: well to say the least, before i even had a fanfiction account, I had read your story before writing my own and I loved the twist you put on the pack and the other characters. I have family from all around the world and have been privliged to meet and get to know my family from Australia. With all the mix matches, your home country is definaitly a must see! and i thought it funny how you described my update to make you 'breathless'. reading reviews like yours bring me out of a state of writers block many times.

**imprint**: I have to say that your review had been the most flattering out of those of my first few chapters. i thought it was great the way you took to my story and i appretiate the review!

**Tralala**: Wel... I'm sorry you were confused, but i have some surprises soon to hit and i hope it evens things out... over all, thanks for the review and I'll try to make it less confusing. Thank you for helping me accel in writing. I think it's great!

**sammy4eva**: I loved your review. it was upbeat and inspiring and I thank you for commenting on my over all writing, it means a lot!

**O.O**: Once again, a highly amusing review. i loved your review and as i found myself in writers block for chapter six, i came back and read all of the reviews and found that overall, it was amusing and in an odd sense, it seemed to inspire me for my next chapter. Thanks for making me smile and laugh!

**Iiiii**: Well to say the very least, your review kept me nonstop entertained. I loved that you managed to go over everything. Not many reviewers do such a things but i found it highly flattering that you took to my story such as you did. the time you took to write such words of... well to write such words brought a smile to my face and an insirping sensation for future chapters!

**SaaamForLife**: Once again you, like others... your review brought a smile to my face. it was humerous and amusing and i loved that commented on Ashley, a character that i wasn't so sure about, but your review brought it to my attention. Ashley was the character to make your blood boil and i think it's great that she did her job. Sorry for the anger you feel for her and brady, but i thought it was a great review and greatly appretiated!  
p.s.- your other review was just as flattering as the first and though i admire your love for my characters and your (what seems like) passionate hate for Ashley, i have a few curve balls i'm going to try and hit with my chapters... hopefully i strike up a homerun!

**SRP1995**: As horrible as this sounds, i loved that my story made you cry. I know it sounds heartless, but when you mentioned that it made you cry, it really hit me that i had put emotions in words enough to make you feel enough to bring forwards an emotion. i love stories that make me cry because i know that the writer/author has succeeded in bringing forwards a new light, a story that makes me feel exactly what the character does. I'm sorry for bringing forth the inconveniance of tears, but your review was truly inspiring!

**ilovejakethemost**: i think it highly uplifting that you found my story and took to it... thanks greatly for your review and i think it highly amusing how many readers dislike my character ashley. i also liked how you made it sound as if you cared for some characters enough to hope that ashley really isn't pregnant... and as convincing as your review was, i hope it doesn't put you off if i tell you that it is as it is... Ashley is pregnant and there is nothing Brady can do to save himself. thanks for the review!

**Twiligth**: once again, as horrible as it sounds i thought it reassuring knowing that my chapters made you cry. it lets me know that i'm doing my job in transferring raw emotions to the readers so they feel something for my story. and i admire your liking of Seth's part in my story. (i'll let you in on a sneak peak... as the chapters go on, SETH will be playing a very, very big part in Nicky's life!) thanks for the review!

**Lisa 6-feet-under Vengeance**: Your review kind of confused me... but a shout out all the same!

**geeniebop**: i wasn't sure about the song... but i thought it fit for the mood of the chapter. thanks for reviewing my story and i appreatiate you took the time to voice your opinion!

**McSteamy Lovin**: An awesome penname overall, i love it and think it's brilliant. thanks for the review and i hope you enjoy the future chapters. I'm about to turn up the heat so i hope you have some ice close by!

**Fail bot**: I'm sorry that you didn't like my story... i wasn't sure i liked how you voiced your opinion... but all the same it is your opinion and not my own so there isn't much i can do about it. over all... thanks for you input and i hope you find a story on fanfiction that satisfies your likings.

thank you to everyone who reviewed, the time you take to voice your opinion is very inspiring and i hope to do your expectations justice!

enjoy!

your's truly,

Il Guerriero Diavolo


	8. Chapter 8: The New Roommate

You and Me

_Inspired by the life and times of a great person and an even greater story._

_**Last Chapter Preview:  
**__**Nicky's POV.**_

_"Well, I have one condition." I smiled as the smile wiped from his face and suddenly he stopped and starred at me shocked. "I have a new roommate." I could see the dials turning in his head. _

_"You may not like his at first, but I know you'll learn to love him. He's dominating, kind of like you. And you're both very protective of your property. But I found that he's stolen my heart, and though I tried to deny it at first, he really is like Brady in some ways. Only we share a talent together like no one else._

_I could visibly see Seth's face grow suspicious and as he peaced the puzzle together, the sudden emotions running through his eyes were tremendously difficulty to understand. Fury, rage, pity, happiness, fear, anxiety and a sudden flash of realization, he knew what was happening. And as his head turned towards my truck, in an instant everything changed before my eyes. _

**Chapter Seven: **_A New Roommate  
_**Nicky's POV.**

Seth's head turned warily from the truck towards me once again. "Nichole, I don't know what you were thinking, but he can't stay here, it's a wonder the rest of the pack haven't smelt him already. Get him out of here Nick or will have no choice." his words were alarming as I could feel the frown plaster itself on my face. His head spun around searching the area as my eyes followed his cautiously.

"No choice for what Seth? What's wrong?" I could see the begging sensation as his eyes bored through my own, churning my stomach on the spot. I couldn't help but cringe as his very face seemed to through me off. The worry in his eyes, the pleading in his torn expression.

"Get him out of here or I will have to kill him Nichole, weather you like it or not." his arms grasped my shoulders tightly, his body slightly shaking as his worried eyes wracked around the place we were. As if something were going to burst from the tree line any second.

"What are you talking about Seth?" I didn't understand what Seth was so agitated about. Why would the pack have to come out? There was nothing wrong.

"David. If they find that leach on our lands, they'll tear him to pieces in an instant. I don't know how you masked his scent this long, but if he's in your truck you can kiss it goodbye." his voice was eerily silencing as the seconds ticked by. A hollow wind swept through the trees as he pulled me back away from the truck.

"David's not with me Seth. Did you really think I would bring him here?" I asked incredulously as he immediately stopped pulling me away and spun me around to face him in a motion so forced and quick that it mode me dizzy just thinking about it.

"Roommate? Hello Nicky, I saw him propose to you on TV. Aren't you two engaged now?" his eyes were daring, less worried, but more concerned. What amazed me was how they managed to find out let alone see our engagement on the television. There were no press around us. Non at all.

"Um… well you see…" I couldn't force myself to speak the words as I thought about the consequences of confessing the truth. Then again, this was Seth Clearwater. Un-imprinted, kind hearted, warm Seth who had given up some much for me when I had left him in my wake after I left. I suppose in a way I owed him at least an explanation.

"It's not easy to explain Seth. And you have to understand I truly did what I thought was best. But the day after I agreed to marry him… I gave him the ring back." as my heart ripped apart at the memory of the night I spoke to David, Seth's eyes bulged as he pulled me into a scotching hug. His secure arms seemed to smooth out the rough edges of the disaster brewing around me. Something about the safety being wrapped in his arms.

"Wait…" I stiffed and he demanded I stay frozen on the spot. Pulling back to look at me, confusion in his eyes, I watched as a small smirk crept its way onto his face. "Then if your roommate isn't David, then who is it?" I couldn't help but laugh at the simplicity of the question. It was an easy question, but for Seth… the very idea of it seemed to stir a sudden curiosity in his eyes.

"Oh yeah." I smiled at the thought. I had been through so much in the last couple of months, my decision to bring another man into my life seemed stupid and utterly impossible, but Dustin seemed like a logical answer to all my questions.

Striding towards the truck and leaving Seth in my wake, I stepped up to the passenger side of the truck, out of sight for Seth and opened the door, "Come on Dustin, there's someone I want you to meet." walking around the front of the truck, I started towards Seth with a new confidence in my step and a special warmth pressed to my heart.

Seth's eyes widened a considerable amount as he looked from me, to Dustin and back again. "This, Seth… is Dustin." I smiled as I saw his reaction. Stepping up to face Seth, held in my arms was a little, red, Irish Setter puppy that was all mine. He had floppy ears and silky fur with green eyes and a small body as his age was still young.

"Nicky… I…" his face melted from a smirk into a bright smile as I placed the small, sleeping puppy in his big, warm hands. The sudden jolt of surprise that passed through his face would be one I would remember forever. "Why?" he asked in a hushed voice as I led him over to the bench.

"He reminds me of you, demanding and over protective. Stupid, like all Irish Setters are, but strong and independent. He was my sign of a new beginning, a new life, a chance to start over. When I saw him sitting in the window, separated from all other breeds of dogs. Almost every cage was crowded with at least two puppies but him. When I remember the way he held himself in his cage, it reminded me of all the times that I had to stand alone against all odds. So I bought him, because even in the end, I had you to lean on when the lonesome act of life proved too much, now… he has me to lean on, to trust and love and depend on." I smiled as the puppy nestled in closer to Seth's warmth, lapping what was most likely drool from the outside of it's mouth.

"Are you sure Nichole? Are you sure you want this kind of responsibility? Not that I don't think you can't handle it or anything, but I'm just thinking of you." his eyes were sincere and caring as he looked from the small animal laying in his hands to me, the puppy still nestled in closely to his warmth.

"Seth, if I ever thought that I couldn't handle it, I would be sure to leave him with a respectable and caring family. If I can't take care of him, I promise to make sure he gets to someone that can take care of him. This is my fresh start Seth, I feel like this is something I _have _to do." I smiled as he nodded his head and handed Dustin back to me. Chuckling when his discomfort woke him suddenly as the heat was taken from him.

"Where are you going to stay Nicky?" I could hear the second question behind his voice as he continued to look at the resettled puppy in my hands. I would return to Stephanie and Jason, they had done so much for me, and even if I didn't stay there, they at least deserved to know I had come back.

"I'm going back to Steph and Jason. They're the only family I've got left." I sighed as I stood from the park bench. Turning to Seth an idea settled in nicely as I considered the circumstances. "Look Seth, it's cloudy and not very nice outside and time's getting on. How about we take Dustin back to the house and go get something to eat? I know you're hungry." I grinned as he flashed a brilliant smile, convinced I had him hooked by the very mention of food, we walked towards the truck and got in, fully ready to go face Stephanie and Jason.

Within fifteen minutes, I pulled into the driveway of the grand beach house. Some how, there was something missing from the house, maybe it was character, or the warmth that people living inside often held with it. There were hardly any lights on, and the ones that were on were dimly lit.

Walking cautiously towards the door, I knocked quickly as I heard the familiar dragged footsteps approach the door. Taking a deep breath, I watched as it slid open slowly, revealing a tired, weary looking Stephanie and a confused Jason. The second they saw me, Steph took in a long, drawled out breath and her eyes lit up immediately. Jason had much the same reaction and as they both bounded forward, wrapping their arms around me, for the first time in a while, I actually felt like I had come home. I actually felt welcomed.

"Oh my god Nichole I've missed you so much! There's just something missing about this house when your not here!" I could see the tears start to form in Stephanie's eyes as she pulled me forward into the all-too familiar living room and insisted I take a seat. Seth looked content as he slumped back comfortably in his chair.

"So, not to pry, but what brings you back Nichole?" After a list of questions, Jason had finally asked the one I had been waiting for this whole time.

"Well, while I was away I realized something. Though I loved my taste of the fame and the good life, there was always a feeling in the pit of my stomach, like the butterflies had never really left from the first time I felt home sick. And as the days passed, my realization became evident. I lost half my life, a life I wasn't ready to live without. So, I was wondering… if it was okay with you two, if I came back and stayed with you a little bit longer." suddenly, a new wave of tears flashed through Stephanie's eyes. "And I hope you don't mind, but I brought along a friend." the tears were stilling stinging Stephanie's eyes, but Jason's eyes filled with worry and concern.

Running out to the truck quickly, I opened and stepped through the door holding Dustin in my arms as he continued to sleep. Jason's eyes widened and then his shoulders relaxed, as if I had lifted a great weight from his shoulders, and Stephanie's tears broke into soft little words she cooed to the puppy as I set him in her arms.

"So your back, for real?" Jason asked quietly not two minutes later. Smiling, I nodded my head as even Jason grinned a little and began to pet the dog.

"I would love to stay and catch up. But I promised Seth I'd take him out for the night. So if it's alright with you two I'll leave Dustin here? He shouldn't be much of a problem." I smiled as Steph nodded happily and Jason did the same, but with much less enthusiasm.

After agreeing to meet with Seth in half an hour, I ran up stairs to change into some more decent clothes. I knew all the consequences of the previous actions I had taken. The cautions and people I would have to avoid, the people I would have to ignore, but coming home made me feel like everything would finally be okay again, and I wouldn't have traded that for the world.

Turning to find all my things in their exact places, I fell upon an old CD I had made long ago. Songs I had recorded and edited on the laptop Stephanie and Jason had given to me for Christmas. Standing for what felt like years, I retraced all the actions I had taken and a part of me wondered if I were really doing the right thing.

Opening the top of my CD player, I carefully placed the disk down and closed the lid. Feeling the slight tug on my cheeks as I pressed the play button. It was a soft piano at first, chords and keys I had played together, then the different instruments before combining them into one. I could hear the music leading up to the part the lyrics would begin, and the more I listened to the music, the more I found I had no memory making this song, I couldn't remember why.

I can't stand to fly  
I'm not that naive  
I'm just out to find  
The better part of me

I'm more then a bird  
I'm more then a plane  
I'm more then some  
Pretty face inside your dream  
And it's not easy  
To be me

I wish that I could cry  
Fall upon my knees  
Find a way to lie  
'Bout a home I'll never see

It may sound absurd  
But don't be naive  
Even heroes have  
The right to bleed

I may be disturbed  
From what you can see  
Even heroes have  
The right to dream  
And it's not easy  
To be me

I could feel the tug as my heart seemed to leap from my chest at the thought. There was something, something about the way it sounded, the way the words tied together in an epic recap of what I felt like every time I considered the life I had lived through all this time. The hearty reminder of who I was, who I am, and who I'll be ten years from now.

People say what your past is doesn't necessarily define who you are, but it seems that who your are and what you do now will define who you are in your future, and as I think about it, it seems reasonably true. If someone would have told me three or four years ago that this is what my life would be like, I would have laughed and thought they were crazy, but it seems that perhaps you have to believe in even the craziest of things, because I would have never thought this would have happened like it did.

My life, my family, my career, my hidden _secret. _Everything just feels like one big blur.

Looking back on the clock, I decided my time would have been better spent getting changed and fixing myself up. Skipping ahead a song, I found a much faster and more upbeat tune, better for getting ready quickly. It seemed to do me justice in the end.

As I walked from the bedroom and down the stairs, I was greeted by Steph and Jason. Stephanie stood smiling with Jason's arms wrapped around her as they both watched me appear. Giving them a small hug each and sharing a grin, I exited the house and stepped into my truck. Chilled by the night air as I only had a dress and an over coat on. Curling my hair and putting it up into a messy bun with strands of hair hanging loosely around my face, I slipped the reading glasses over my eyes and started the truck.

I had put the glasses on in hop that they would help mask my face somewhat without changing my appearance too much. I would have to change myself back in order to blend in better here. It would be hard changing back lifestyles.

In all the thoughts racing through my head, I found myself standing outside the Clearwater's house sooner then I was ready. Stepping out of the truck and into the night air, I approached the two story white house and knocked on the front door. Taking a step back, I waited as I heard Seth call for his sister to answer the door as he would be two more minutes.

I smiled as Leah opened the door and silently invited me in. Though it was a different atmosphere, out of everyone, Leah understood the most what I had went through in the past couple of months. Walking into the house, I turned and looked at her as she suddenly took a step forward and wrapped her warm arms around my body in a bone crushing hug. Returning the gesture, I watched as she stepped back after a few moments and starred into my eyes. No words could explain what passed between us, and no words were needed. We were completely content with understanding each other in silence.

"Nichole! Is that you daring? Oh you look stunning!" I smiled as Sue Clearwater burst into the room from the doorway from the kitchen and wrapped her arms around me in a hug also. Taking a step back, she looked me up and down and grinned like a young child as her eyes met mine once again. There was a pride that shone in her eyes as she starred at me contently, her eyes beginning to water as she placed a hand over her heart and starred at me.

"I can't leave you guys for two minutes." I turned to look at the source of the voice and as eyes wondered up and I saw Seth walking down the stairs, a faint crooked smile on his lips and an understanding for his mother words could not explain. Reaching the bottom of the stairs, I couldn't help but step aside as Seth walked up and wrapped his arms around his mom, giving her a hug as silent tears fell down her face.

"What are you crying for mom?" Seth whispered in his mother's ear, so low I could hardly hear what he was saying.

"It's not fair baby. I'm so happy you were able to make Nicky here happy," suddenly, Sue took and step back and walked over, throwing her arms around my shoulders again and wrapping me into another hug. "I know it's hard, but I think the world of you Nichole. If you can get through what you have in the past few months and still stand tall, then I truly believe that there is hope for all young women in the world. And looking at you reminds me of the strength I need to get out of bed every morning without Harry. You just mean the world to me, all three of you!"

Pulling Seth, Leah and I into another warm hug, I smiled as I loved the warm feeling being encased in her arms gave me. "Oh look at me, I'm a mess. You two get out of here before you make me cry more!" I smiled as Sue stepped back and clasped her hands together. "Oh… wait! Let me get a picture of you first!"

As Sue grabbed the camera, I watched her turn it on and waited for Seth to make a move. When he remained rigid and uncomfortable, I sighed and forced his arm onto my shoulder. Pulling Seth closer to me, I wrapped one of my arms around his back and leaned into his tall frame. "Say Cheese!" she laughed and snapped the photograph of us.

Walking out of the house, I couldn't help but smile as I got into the truck and pulled out of the driveway. Turning on the radio after a few minutes of silence, I sighed as the man introduced my newest song for the first time and played it aloud on the radio.

"It's a sad picture, the final blow hit's you, somebody else get's what you want and it can't end…" Seth absent mindedly drummed his finger on his lap and as I turned to look at him, I smiled as his eyes met my own and I saw the hidden feeling built up behind his own mind. "You know it's all the same, another time and place, repeating history and your getting sick of it, but I believe in whatever you do, and I'll do anything to see it through."

Turning back to the road, I watched as a single rain drop fell onto the windshield, and in what felt like an instant, bucket's of rain began to fall. Pushing the button for the windshield wipers, somehow, they failed to turn on. In a burst of light, I watched in slow motion as the other car's lights swerved and hit mine head on, blackness filling my every thought.

"It was the night thing's changed, we'll say it loud, these walls that they put up to hold back fell down, this revolution, through your hands up cause we never gave in, we'll sing halleluiah, we sang halleluiah, halleluiah." the final lyrics of my song echoed in my head as everything faded to a solemn and inviting black that over took my entire body.


End file.
